[TillE]

> you created a non-trivial project from scratch

I think a lot of people overestimate the amount of effort it takes to create a moderately successful, useful project. Like, make a plugin for something. Demonstrate that you can solve a real problem competently.

If you have any kind of outside interests, you probably have an itch that can be scratched this way.

[pavel_lishin]

I think you might be over-estimating the ability of many software engineers to write a whole project - any whole project - from scratch.

I mean, you're not wrong - it's not that hard - but it's also amazing how many people in our profession aren't particularly good at doing more than make small modifications in some giant monorepo at work.

And like, if you don't have the drive or desire to outside of work, that's fine! Maybe you've got other hobbies, or a family, or as much interest in practicing your work at home as an average dentist. So the lack of a Github repo full of fun side projects shouldn't be a negative signal. But I also know that I've worked with people in the past that I don't think actually could make A Thing from scratch without someone holding their hands the whole time.

[mckravchyk]

And the irony is that those people will only automatically get bonus points for being an "engineer" of a large, well-known company while a solo developer creating an impressive project can be viewed as an amateur and likewise people working in startup jobs that have more technical ownership will have less of a resume.