How having a side project can avail you get a better job
Long hours are nothing unorthodox in the tech industry.
Whether you’re a developer facing hundreds of hours of crunch time in order to ship an incipient game, or a datacenter administrator on a tight deadline to upgrade an inordinate quantity of server racks, or a QA tester with a zoo of bugs to squish, there’s ostensibly no terminus to the work that requires to be done.
Which is, of course, why you should consider doing a side project.
As developer (and frequent Dice contributor) David Bolton describes in an incipient column on Dice’s UK Website, side projects—whether inditing software, building Websites, or contributing to an open-source platform—are an excellent way to not only boost your skills, but ameliorate your chances when you’re probing for an incipient position.
A good side project, he indited, could “make the distinction between your CV getting you to an interview [or] ending up in the rubbish bin.”
And he’s right. Side projects sanction you to:
Show off skills
It’s one thing to learn programming in school, or take some classes to pick up an incipient adeptness-set; but exhibiting that you’re acquired skills and put them to practical use will set you apart from other applicants.
Show off time management
Side projects take an abundance of time and effort. If you’re consummated a few prosperously while holding down a day job, it alludes that you’re profoundly adept at time management.
Show off your ardency
Employers are always on the lookout for candidates who are ardent about what they do.
Show you’re a self-starter
Side projects are customarily commenced under your own volition. Pursuing one will demonstrate to employers that you have the initiative to commence something and visually perceive it through — a valuable adeptness in the workplace.
As with all things, however, there are some caveats. You should always tailor your résumé and application materials to the position for which you’re applying; if your side project pertains to the job, by all denotes include it, ascertaining to accentuate how its results and required skills make you a better candidate.
If your side project is extraneous, on the other hand, consider leaving it off your materials, and utilizing that space for other accomplishments.
If you get through the application and job-interview process, ascertain the job will sanction you to perpetuate that side-work, under conditions you find auspicious. For example, some employment contracts stipulate that anything developed by employees, including things built while on their own time, belongs to the company.
If that’s the case, and the employer doesn’t budge or offer a workaround, you may have to put the side project aside (so to verbalize) during your tenure at the firm.
Many employers, though, are amenable if you expound from the outset that you require to maintain a side project, especially if it’s more of a hobby than a full-time line of business.
If you’re fascinated with pursuing a side project, but you’re unsure of where to commence, consider participating in an open-source platform, where you’ll work on software utilized by a plethora of people (and amass tips and best practices from dedicated community members).
Check out opensource.com for tutorials, overviews of current projects, and other resources (if you’re unfamiliar with Linux, for example, here’s a jumping-off point to learn about it). Once you’ve contributed to a project, it’s a fairly straightforward matter to integrate that fresh open-source experience into your résumé.
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Jillur Rahman
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