Plenty of great programmers have no side projects. They have family or hobbies or something else that occupies their time outside of work.
For people like this, though, I’ve seen many use it as an opportunity to work on something they’ve been wanting to for a while and never had the time! A Hello World in a new language, merging in PRs on an old repo, writing a script to automate something or even a take home coding exam for another company.
One that we tend to do a lot is creating an image gallery using Flickr or Unsplashed's API. It's vague enough that people can take it in whatever direction they want, and simple enough that you can get pretty far in an hour.
I ask people to send me code they've written via email or links to projects and go through that.
I have a gigantic open-source portfolio[0]. I also go to great lengths to make sure that I’m a “known quantity” (like posting frequent exposition on fora like this one). I don’t feel that I have anything to hide. Everyone that has worked with me has found the experience enormously fulfilling.
It’s been quite jarring to see this ignored and treated with disbelief. That’s pretty much exactly the opposite reaction from the one that I would have, but I guess I’m out of touch with the way things are done, these days. I even talked to someone who told me about a friend that had invented some kind of machine learning candidate evaluation system, and relied on that, as opposed to human vetting.
One of my goals is to discourage people that wouldn’t want to work with me. I was a hiring manager for a fairly high-functioning, high-stakes team, and am quite aware of the value of making good hiring choices, which go well beyond simple expertise. Team dynamics are also very important.
I feel that getting a job as a result of misrepresentation is a big mistake, and a recipe for misery. So I don't hide my age, don’t pad my résumé, and make every effort to be as open as possible. If you don't want to work with me; fine. Let's not waste each others' time.
I have always sought to make it easy for people to figure me out. Since I live a fairly good life, and know my way around the playground, I feel that I'm a pretty good bet, but I have no problems if others think otherwise.
One of my favorite Twain quotes is "Let us so live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry."
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Literally everyone? Ok :)
As such, I won't post stuff like you just did. It's uncouth and unprofessional. I consider this a professional environment. If you choose to look at it as a personal entertainment medium, then knock yourself out.
I'm a reformed troll. I used to be a right bastard. A great deal of my approach, these days, is an act of atonement. In fact, a great deal of my personal philosophy is based upon becoming a much more productive member of society, than I have been in the past.
I'm every bit as cynical as the next chap; more so, I'll bet. I regularly deal with some truly scary people, in my personal work on NPO stuff. I doubt there's a thing that you could say that would shock me.
It's also quite possible for very good people to exist in this world. I try to be one, myself. I know of many, many others. They are my heroes, and my models.
Please don't make the error of mistaking optimism, kindness, or politeness for weakness or stupidity. It's my experience that this can lead to...costly mistakes.
My post had nothing to do with any of this.
All I was pointing out was that being excessively boastful and claiming that everyone, without exception, finds working with you "enormously fulfilling" is just unbecoming. I feel like many will find that distasteful and you should leave other people to rate their interactions with you. I doubt there's a single person in the world who has a 100% success rate with regards to positive social/professional experiences with others...
I could have definitely worded it more politely and honestly if this account was tied to my personal name I probably would have worded it more politely, so you've got me there :)
I posted incorrectly. It is not 100% universal, but I'll bet it's a lot more than you might think. I've spent the last 40 years, getting along with some of the most difficult people on Earth. In fact, many of them are ones with a history of violence, and it's always a good idea to be polite in that kind of company.
Geeks are easy, after that.
That said, I suspect that many companies have been exploring this. It's pretty obvious that many places are already using AS (Artificial Stupidity) systems to triage applicants.
My guess is most people are covered by some sort of IP clause for their main work, and the most visible OSS projects are still not run by very many people, so most devs are not gonna be able to show you much.