Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job
&gt; First, most recruiters don’t care about your personal projects or how many meetups you went during the...<p>Why are you trying to impress recruiters? I mean, the entire point of the post is wrong, but impressing recruiters is downright stupid. Let&#x27;s be frank: recruiters are bottom-of-the-totem-pole, lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeders.<p>If you aren&#x27;t trying to do your own thing (which, let&#x27;s face it, is the most exciting prospect), at least try to impress CEOs or product managers, or -- my goodness -- at least <i>hiring managers</i>. I heard a fun anecdote of Evan Spiegel attending an LA hackathon maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Some nerdy engineer showed him that he figured out how to get around Snapchat&#x27;s spam filter. Spiegel offered him a job on the spot. Could a recruiter ever do that? Hell to the no.