[RamblingCTO]

Startup CTO here, so can't talk about corporate hiring politics. But for me, side projects show that the interviewee actually gives a crap about coding and they demonstrate, that they can finish a project. They're less likely to be lazy codemonkeys and more likely passionate people that care about the project, have an understanding of the processes and why we sometimes choose business over tech.

[bigpeopleareold]

Just a thought: if someone (like myself!) has a long list of repos of unfinished projects, this could an accrued realization that one has no time to do side projects; they have to choose business (as in having a life outside of coding) over tech. :D

[RamblingCTO]

And that's totally fine! It's not a hard criteria, I just love to see the style of code, how people organize themselves and stuff like that. It's actually a very good reason!