&gt; My side work is more in line with the type of work I am going for, so I&#x27;d like to be able to highlight those projects in an interview, but so far have avoided discussing them in depth or even putting them on my resume. As a result I feel I am categorized as being a great fit for a data eng role, but not enough experience for data science or machine learning.<p>In that case I think you should put the projects on you resume and politely try to steer the conversation to those projects. Theoretically they will be more interested in those projects, if that&#x27;s what they&#x27;d want you do to.<p>&gt; Generally speaking, do companies look down on candidates who take on side work in addition to their FT job?<p>I wouldn&#x27;t discuss this in the interview but would ask my lead engineer when I&#x27;m settled. There&#x27;s no need to discuss this a priori, except if you plan to prioritize side-projects (which doesn&#x27;t make sense).