My thinking about my future prospects as a potential employee (finishing school soon and thinking about the future) has led me to think about the things suggested in this article very seriously: I enjoy my hobbies involving the outdoors. I love hiking, climbing, cycling, and any other form of enjoying the outdoors. If I'm now trying to get a job at a technical company doing technical work, many founders and recruiters expect (sometimes even assume) that I will have some side projects I'm working on.
But I don't want to work on a side project for the heck of it. I want to stay healthy and enjoy my times outside. There is a brand of people out there that aren't just obsessed with the technical, and recruiters and companies who want all kinds of talent are going to have to be open to different lifestyles - including healthy ones.
It's pretty safe to assume that employees with side projects even remotely related to work are a small minority. In all the years I've been in industry, I can count on one hand, the number of people I have known, or interviewed, that had technical side projects.
Most people just go home and kick back in front of the TV, or garden, or fish, or run or something. Rarely is that "something" a software project.
Absolutely! As I say at one point in the post, if I had to choose I would choose life over side projects any day of the week. Although I prefer to hire those who do side projects I have also hired people precisely because of what they did outside of the web.
But I don't want to work on a side project for the heck of it. I want to stay healthy and enjoy my times outside. There is a brand of people out there that aren't just obsessed with the technical, and recruiters and companies who want all kinds of talent are going to have to be open to different lifestyles - including healthy ones.