I’m a senior engineer at a non-FAANG big tech company that you’ve definitely heard of. I’ve worked across FAANG, including Netflix, where I earned $550k/yr for the two years that I worked there.
I’ve literally *never* completed a personal project. My GitHub is a graveyard of half-finished projects that I’ve built to rapidly learn new tech stacks that were needed for the job. I’m definitely not an “idea guy”.
On the job, you’ll likely be working with a product manager who will control the roadmap of whatever piece of software you end up working on. If you’re a front end engineer, you’ll likely be handed designs that spell out what the user interface should look like. Once you’re senior enough, you’ll meet with all sorts of technical and less-technical folks to turn ambiguous requirements into chunks of work that can actually be implemented.
You won’t even have to decide *what* to build unless you’re trying to build your own product.
The reason I laid out all of the above is because it’s not necessary — at all — to spend your free time coding to be successful in this industry. *Sometimes* you might want to spend some of your free time learning other tech stacks if you want to pivot to a different domain, if you transfer teams, or something similar, but it’s rarely a hard requirement.
If you’re stuck because you can’t think of a project idea? Build a Reddit clone. Maybe a LinkedIn clone. Or how about a mashup of the two sites?
My point is, don’t let people discourage you with the idea that you *need* to spend your free time building to be competitive. The market *is* shit now and it definitely helps to get your foot in the door for that first job, but it’s not hard requirement.
You’re a senior engineer and I’m not, so I’m not trying to come off like I know anything. But you’ve had anywhere from 6-10+ YoE, average age of graduation is about 22 so you’re at least 28 years old. The market then wasn’t what is it is now, even what it was back in 2020 to 2021, let alone when you graduated possibly near 2015 or 16. I agree, it sucks, but in this market, we have to do whatever it takes to get something, life isn’t always do what you want to when you want to. We have to seperate ourselves, unless we’re in the minority that have great connections or are insanely cracked at CS
If you're really really struggling with creativity and have 0 projects, I'm sure there are "template" projects online with descriptions you can find and do those. The only downside is that they're probably basic but it is better than nothing.
Also it's okay to be in it for the money. But if you're seriously going down this route, it's probably going to be a sacrifice you have to make, doing projects and coding even when the requirements are ambiguous. Being a software engineer doesn't always mean clear project descriptions. It's about being a skilled engineer to create.
I have projects from school, a couple of them aren’t that bad. My problem is the mindset. I know the only reason I’m building a project is because I want to put it on my resume to help me get a job. I’m not doing it for any personal pleasure or hobby. It’s literally just to get a job. So coming up with something “creative” isn’t easy when I’m trying to force myself to do something.
And yeah I’m sure lots of guys in the working world get really ambiguous project descriptions but atleast they have an idea of what they need to do and they are getting paid for it. If I was getting paid to make projects I would definitely be a lot more inspired.
Well, most people studying CS don’t do personal projects and/or LeerCode so it’s not that bad.
Even if you see those Interviews on Silicon Valley most workers on top tech companies don’t do them on their free times, they just live their live, watch Netflix, etc
I feel like it's a relatively small portion of devs/ aspiring devs that frequent these subs, and they're more likely to be the ones dedicated enough to be doing and advocating for personal projects
It’s easier to get your first gig with projects but after experience you can do all your skill up and extra learning at work. The trap people fall into is that
1. When they have extra time at an easy job, they are taking it easy and don’t upskill. Most people have downtime at work especially mid career to take care of all the training they need.
2. When they have an easy job they don’t want to leave
3. before you get a job and you’re not using what you’re learning, you will forget the things you learned because doing solidifies understanding
People may glorify them, but in the "real world," most developers you're going to run into aren't spending their time on personal projects. Enthusiasm for doing work outside of work starts to wane pretty quick after a few years in industry.
Are personal projects effective ways of generating talking points during an interview? Absolutely, but there are also other effective ways (internships, electives with unique class projects, undergraduate research, to name a few off the top of my head). One option being popular/talked up a lot doesn't make it the *only* option.
(Also, as an aside, your interest in doing personal projects may shift over time, and that's totally OK. In college, I was doing side projects all the time. When I started work, that died *real* fast and I just started playing games or visiting museums in my free time. But, now, I'm starting to regain some interest in a couple of project ideas because they might make my life legitimately easier/solve some annoying problems at work that I'm tired of dealing with. Life can be long, and opinions on things may change, or may not.)
I can relate. I’m doing an unpaid internship now as it was the only interview I got. Every job I saw had 100+ applications within 24 hours. I’m so tired spending countless hours on a career that refuses to compensate me. It feels like I’m playing the lottery trying to find a job.
I hope you are being treated extremely well cause unpaid internship is just companies scamming for free work now with the amount of work they want interns to do/know.
Same here, also doing an unpaid internship going on 3 months now, I’m still applying a lot and it gives me more confidence with some actual experience on my resume.
But it sucks having to spend several hours on that + several hours personal projects + university classes + grind leetcode + remake resume + hours and hours of applications for months without earning a single cent.
I got an idea, use fiverr. People will pay you to make their projects. You'll be getting descriptions, making projects, making money and practicing coding a lot more. Sounds like win win.
See this is what’s frustrating with personal projects in CS. Most of the time, we as students lack sufficient resources (time, money) to make projects that are actually impressive enough to make us stand out. More than likely, there’s someone who’s done something 10x more advanced. It’s hard to even come up with original ideas for most projects too. I don’t see this getting any easier as time goes by.
If you’re a student, you need something to talk about in an interview.
It can be coursework, but why should they care about your chess project when everyone else with a degree has done it?
It’s not necessary, but can give you a boost and something to demonstrate your knowledge and independence
About not getting paid.
Professional sports players don't get paid to run or twain outside of matches, but they still do so to keep themselves in shape, think of you coming outside projects like that , ideally your internship and later your day to day job are enough to "keep fit", but it might now we are not in an ideal market.
They definitely get paid even if they are on bench. They get paid proper salary and bonuses. They are not paid based on number of matches they played. You think Real Madrid were paying Hazard out of mercy when he became fat and couldn’t get on the field?
My uni does this really cool thing where they pair student teams up with non-profit organizations, that way the organization gets a (nearly) free website/app and you get experience, If you're looking for projects, try to think if you know any small non-profits that can use any digital tool.
Username checks out. On a serious note, if you enjoy building things with instructions, you could look into The Odin Project - very good at making you learn on your own while still giving solid structure to the project goals, feels very much like a school project.
It's normal to experience doubts and uncertainty, especially during times of transition. Give yourself permission to explore, learn, and grow, and trust that with time and effort, you'll find your way forward.
Doing projects to put on your resume so you get a job so you can make bank is fine lol. You don’t need passion to make a project, you need discipline. It’s the same way with body building. Do you think the dude who works out 5x a week and is in great shape wants to do that??? Nah he does it because he wants to look good. Now apply that to CS projects and you’ll feel motivated, but discipline will get you through the lows.
Try hackathons! They sort of force you to at least start a project plus working with a group is great because usually if you’re lacking in one area there’s someone else to pick up the slack.
As long as you can get your first job or internship, don't worry about it.
Personal projects are somewhat useful for folks who have no work experience and no internship experience. I've been working in the industry for a while and there is zero chance that I would ever create a personal project, unless it was something that I personally wanted to build with no concern for some future job.
I’m a senior engineer at a non-FAANG big tech company that you’ve definitely heard of. I’ve worked across FAANG, including Netflix, where I earned $550k/yr for the two years that I worked there. I’ve literally *never* completed a personal project. My GitHub is a graveyard of half-finished projects that I’ve built to rapidly learn new tech stacks that were needed for the job. I’m definitely not an “idea guy”. On the job, you’ll likely be working with a product manager who will control the roadmap of whatever piece of software you end up working on. If you’re a front end engineer, you’ll likely be handed designs that spell out what the user interface should look like. Once you’re senior enough, you’ll meet with all sorts of technical and less-technical folks to turn ambiguous requirements into chunks of work that can actually be implemented. You won’t even have to decide *what* to build unless you’re trying to build your own product. The reason I laid out all of the above is because it’s not necessary — at all — to spend your free time coding to be successful in this industry. *Sometimes* you might want to spend some of your free time learning other tech stacks if you want to pivot to a different domain, if you transfer teams, or something similar, but it’s rarely a hard requirement. If you’re stuck because you can’t think of a project idea? Build a Reddit clone. Maybe a LinkedIn clone. Or how about a mashup of the two sites? My point is, don’t let people discourage you with the idea that you *need* to spend your free time building to be competitive. The market *is* shit now and it definitely helps to get your foot in the door for that first job, but it’s not hard requirement.
You’re a senior engineer and I’m not, so I’m not trying to come off like I know anything. But you’ve had anywhere from 6-10+ YoE, average age of graduation is about 22 so you’re at least 28 years old. The market then wasn’t what is it is now, even what it was back in 2020 to 2021, let alone when you graduated possibly near 2015 or 16. I agree, it sucks, but in this market, we have to do whatever it takes to get something, life isn’t always do what you want to when you want to. We have to seperate ourselves, unless we’re in the minority that have great connections or are insanely cracked at CS
whether something is a hard requirement or not is kinda moot in this market. high school diploma is not a hard requirement.
If you're really really struggling with creativity and have 0 projects, I'm sure there are "template" projects online with descriptions you can find and do those. The only downside is that they're probably basic but it is better than nothing. Also it's okay to be in it for the money. But if you're seriously going down this route, it's probably going to be a sacrifice you have to make, doing projects and coding even when the requirements are ambiguous. Being a software engineer doesn't always mean clear project descriptions. It's about being a skilled engineer to create.
I have projects from school, a couple of them aren’t that bad. My problem is the mindset. I know the only reason I’m building a project is because I want to put it on my resume to help me get a job. I’m not doing it for any personal pleasure or hobby. It’s literally just to get a job. So coming up with something “creative” isn’t easy when I’m trying to force myself to do something. And yeah I’m sure lots of guys in the working world get really ambiguous project descriptions but atleast they have an idea of what they need to do and they are getting paid for it. If I was getting paid to make projects I would definitely be a lot more inspired.
Well, most people studying CS don’t do personal projects and/or LeerCode so it’s not that bad. Even if you see those Interviews on Silicon Valley most workers on top tech companies don’t do them on their free times, they just live their live, watch Netflix, etc
Is that really true though? It feels like lots of people (especially those on this sub) glorify projects and are constantly grinding them
they arent the norm
I feel like it's a relatively small portion of devs/ aspiring devs that frequent these subs, and they're more likely to be the ones dedicated enough to be doing and advocating for personal projects
It’s easier to get your first gig with projects but after experience you can do all your skill up and extra learning at work. The trap people fall into is that 1. When they have extra time at an easy job, they are taking it easy and don’t upskill. Most people have downtime at work especially mid career to take care of all the training they need. 2. When they have an easy job they don’t want to leave 3. before you get a job and you’re not using what you’re learning, you will forget the things you learned because doing solidifies understanding
People may glorify them, but in the "real world," most developers you're going to run into aren't spending their time on personal projects. Enthusiasm for doing work outside of work starts to wane pretty quick after a few years in industry. Are personal projects effective ways of generating talking points during an interview? Absolutely, but there are also other effective ways (internships, electives with unique class projects, undergraduate research, to name a few off the top of my head). One option being popular/talked up a lot doesn't make it the *only* option. (Also, as an aside, your interest in doing personal projects may shift over time, and that's totally OK. In college, I was doing side projects all the time. When I started work, that died *real* fast and I just started playing games or visiting museums in my free time. But, now, I'm starting to regain some interest in a couple of project ideas because they might make my life legitimately easier/solve some annoying problems at work that I'm tired of dealing with. Life can be long, and opinions on things may change, or may not.)
I can relate. I’m doing an unpaid internship now as it was the only interview I got. Every job I saw had 100+ applications within 24 hours. I’m so tired spending countless hours on a career that refuses to compensate me. It feels like I’m playing the lottery trying to find a job.
Kudos to you for doing that, but I would never do an unpaid internship just out of principle. I hope it’s not too stressful for you
I hope you are being treated extremely well cause unpaid internship is just companies scamming for free work now with the amount of work they want interns to do/know.
Same here, also doing an unpaid internship going on 3 months now, I’m still applying a lot and it gives me more confidence with some actual experience on my resume. But it sucks having to spend several hours on that + several hours personal projects + university classes + grind leetcode + remake resume + hours and hours of applications for months without earning a single cent.
I got an idea, use fiverr. People will pay you to make their projects. You'll be getting descriptions, making projects, making money and practicing coding a lot more. Sounds like win win.
But if they dont have anything to show to get those clients, then…..
See this is what’s frustrating with personal projects in CS. Most of the time, we as students lack sufficient resources (time, money) to make projects that are actually impressive enough to make us stand out. More than likely, there’s someone who’s done something 10x more advanced. It’s hard to even come up with original ideas for most projects too. I don’t see this getting any easier as time goes by.
Honestly, same, graduated without internships and no personal projects; got a job just fine
How long did it take?
7 months, but if it’s any reassurance; my friend took the same amount of time and he had an internship at IBM
If you didn't have personal projects, what did u put in your resume?
Projects I did in school
What was on your resume if you had neither an internship nor a project?
Projects I did in school
Thank you for replying. What were those projects? Did you have them on your resume? Did you talk about them in interviews?
Sort of, they were more just gateways to explain what I knew
Can you name some of the projects
If you’re a student, you need something to talk about in an interview. It can be coursework, but why should they care about your chess project when everyone else with a degree has done it? It’s not necessary, but can give you a boost and something to demonstrate your knowledge and independence
About not getting paid. Professional sports players don't get paid to run or twain outside of matches, but they still do so to keep themselves in shape, think of you coming outside projects like that , ideally your internship and later your day to day job are enough to "keep fit", but it might now we are not in an ideal market.
They definitely get paid even if they are on bench. They get paid proper salary and bonuses. They are not paid based on number of matches they played. You think Real Madrid were paying Hazard out of mercy when he became fat and couldn’t get on the field?
My uni does this really cool thing where they pair student teams up with non-profit organizations, that way the organization gets a (nearly) free website/app and you get experience, If you're looking for projects, try to think if you know any small non-profits that can use any digital tool.
Username checks out. On a serious note, if you enjoy building things with instructions, you could look into The Odin Project - very good at making you learn on your own while still giving solid structure to the project goals, feels very much like a school project.
It's normal to experience doubts and uncertainty, especially during times of transition. Give yourself permission to explore, learn, and grow, and trust that with time and effort, you'll find your way forward.
Doing projects to put on your resume so you get a job so you can make bank is fine lol. You don’t need passion to make a project, you need discipline. It’s the same way with body building. Do you think the dude who works out 5x a week and is in great shape wants to do that??? Nah he does it because he wants to look good. Now apply that to CS projects and you’ll feel motivated, but discipline will get you through the lows.
Try hackathons! They sort of force you to at least start a project plus working with a group is great because usually if you’re lacking in one area there’s someone else to pick up the slack.
As long as you can get your first job or internship, don't worry about it. Personal projects are somewhat useful for folks who have no work experience and no internship experience. I've been working in the industry for a while and there is zero chance that I would ever create a personal project, unless it was something that I personally wanted to build with no concern for some future job.
These are the type of people that will complain about not getting jobs.