#PersonalProjects #Resume #SoftwareDeveloper #CareerAdvice
Hey fellow software developers! 👋 I’d love to hear your thoughts on when it’s a good idea to remove personal projects from your resume. 🤔 Here’s a dilemma I’m facing:
As a software developer with 2.5 years of experience, I have a bunch of personal projects listed at the bottom of my resume. However, most of these projects are incomplete or abandoned. 😅 Now, I’m debating whether or not to keep them on my resume.
Some questions running through my mind:
– Will incomplete projects reflect poorly on me to potential employers?
– Are my professional accomplishments enough to showcase my skills without these personal projects?
I’m sure some of you have faced this situation before. What did you decide to do? And do you have any tips or suggestions for me?
Here’s my take on a possible solution:
– Consider removing incomplete or outdated projects, especially if they don’t add value to your resume.
– Focus on highlighting your professional experience and achievements that align with the positions you’re applying for.
– Showcase any personal projects that demonstrate unique skills or a passion for a particular technology.
I’m excited to hear your insights and learn from your experiences! Let’s help each other navigate this challenge together. 🚀💻 #TechCommunity #CareerDevelopment
I think I took them off after about a year or two of experience.
It probably depends on how high-quality the projects are. If your projects are high enough quality to be legitimate businesses, or your projects are things like open source projects with traction, I’d keep them on. If, like you mentioned, they are incomplete, abandoned, buggy, etc. it might be best to leave them off. You can always do a really rough “A/B” test with/without projects to see which ones give you more hits.
I interview a good amount of candidates. I’ve never even clicked a link to look at a personal project. They mean nothing to me.
Good question! +1
Honestly even having incomplete things shows more than the average initiative.
They are still on my resume after 25 YOE. Of course, they are far beyond boilerplate.
If a potential employer talks to me about them, I really appreciate that. If they ignore them, that’s OK but they have to impress me in other areas. If an interviewer shits on them, I usually don’t walk out. I finish out the day, don’t follow up and drop out of the interview process with that employer.
It depends what they are. If they’re cookie cutter projects where you followed some tutorial, ditch them. If they’re at least mildly interesting, keeping them isn’t going to hurt since no one actually goes to look at projects.
To the people saying that you should remove them after 1-2 YOE, what if the role uses a different tech stack and all your experiences don’t have it. Would it be advisable to place some projects using this different tech stack?
I understand that skills are transferrable and no Hiring manager looks at projects, but we gotta remember that recruiters select you first. I think its still advisable to keep projects in this case.
If you remove them, I assume youre applying to jobs that use the same tech stack as your current/previous experiences.
No one will actually look at your personal projects.
If it’s not a project that you actively maintain and have real users using it, then take it off.
I dropped them the instant I didn’t have easy room for them on one page. I’d only keep them around at that point if they were particularly standout, which mine weren’t.
I just include a gitlab link on the resume rather than listing the projects out.