No interviewer has demonstrated anything but perfunctory interest in my open source work, popular or not.
It's a myth, like 'nobody cares where you went to school so long as you can do the work'.
It's a myth, like 'nobody cares where you went to school so long as you can do the work'.
Never once have I been asked which school I went to or anything about my CS degree. I had multiple people contacting me after finding me on Github (and my OSS work is very unpopular and mostly unmaintained) and one of them was a C-Suite who offered me a job.
I never found a job with a recruiter - just networking, so it may be a form of self selection for more personal interactions.
I had an apartment fire, I am in a jam and am looking for employment as such my contributions to this project may diminish while I focus on my finances, if anyone has any leads at their company please let me know.
Unless one is looking to only work at a FAANG, I suspect something to that effect would net leads for a top developer of a successful project.
Most people's 'side projects' don't shine on their resume because the side project is just a replica of one hundred other projects that do the same thing. In order to be known for a side project, you have to make sure the audience is small enough for it to make a difference, but large enough that there is commercial interest.
In he past when I did candidate screening I used floss work extensively to evaluate a candidate. To me, personal projects are an excellent way to assess skillsets at multiple levels.
Perhaps you've been interviewed by people who place a greater focus on soft skills, or HR headhunters who can only read CVs?
Also, you don't need most companies or all companies to value your open source project. You need one.
On the other hand, I got my current job exclusively via my open source work. But I created a project from scratch.