People who have side projects catch the eye of companies like the ones you worked for? Has any company ever gone after a software engineer for seeing their talent / project?
Previously at Uber, Skyscanner, Skype/Microsoft. I love to help people grow and share what I learned. I write longer articles on software engineering at blog.pragmaticengineer.com.
I would say, it depends. For small startups, where the cofounders are actively looking for people, your side project might catch their eye and they might reach out because of this. For larger companies or startups, recruiters generally use Linkedin or Stackoverflow to search for specific technologies. I've had examples of both.
Both the cofounders of Skyscanner and Whatsapp reached out to me, after coming across Cocktail Flow, a Windows Phone app I built with some friends 2011. At the time, this app was getting a lot of attention, some calling it a shining example of great design on Windows Phone and Microsoft advertising it heavily. This was at the time when both companies were small and not very well known - it was the first time I heard of Whatsapp, for example. So yes, this can happen, but I wouldn't count on it.
Skype pinged me, as I was a prominent member of the C#/XAML community at the time, and they were looking for people with this expertise for the Skype for XBox One team. As far as I know, their recruiters pinged a lot of people with this skillset, I was just one of the many. It might have helped that I was a speaker on a couple of Microsoft events at the time, but I'm not sure. By the time Skype pinged me, I realized I enjoyed doing Windows Phone development more than my day job, and jumped at the opportunity to build something for the new XBox One.
The way I see it, side projects won't be a ticket for recognition. But it's a great way to build something interesting and improve your skils.
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Hi, thanks for the AMA!
People who have side projects catch the eye of companies like the ones you worked for? Has any company ever gone after a software engineer for seeing their talent / project?
I would say, it depends. For small startups, where the cofounders are actively looking for people, your side project might catch their eye and they might reach out because of this. For larger companies or startups, recruiters generally use Linkedin or Stackoverflow to search for specific technologies. I've had examples of both.
Both the cofounders of Skyscanner and Whatsapp reached out to me, after coming across Cocktail Flow, a Windows Phone app I built with some friends 2011. At the time, this app was getting a lot of attention, some calling it a shining example of great design on Windows Phone and Microsoft advertising it heavily. This was at the time when both companies were small and not very well known - it was the first time I heard of Whatsapp, for example. So yes, this can happen, but I wouldn't count on it.
Skype pinged me, as I was a prominent member of the C#/XAML community at the time, and they were looking for people with this expertise for the Skype for XBox One team. As far as I know, their recruiters pinged a lot of people with this skillset, I was just one of the many. It might have helped that I was a speaker on a couple of Microsoft events at the time, but I'm not sure. By the time Skype pinged me, I realized I enjoyed doing Windows Phone development more than my day job, and jumped at the opportunity to build something for the new XBox One.
The way I see it, side projects won't be a ticket for recognition. But it's a great way to build something interesting and improve your skils.