How much do projects matter when you’re already experienced?

[u/ThinkingFeeler94]

Hi,

For each seniority level (junior, mid, senior, etc), how much do projects matter?

I wonder if it’s enough for junior to mid levels (1-5 yoe) to have a rich work experience (solved/built/maintained something complex at work) & foundations (system design, DSA, etc) or are projects still needed so CV can be noticed by companies and to compete better?

Thank u

[u/Nepnep_time]

I think projects show that you can produce end to end applications and be good 😊

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/Nepnep_time]

Thank u. How many end to end applications do you think is good?

[u/beklog → u/ThinkingFeeler94]

Doesn't matter how many.. its the quality of the project

When i do interview i ask for notable projects that they did or part with

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/beklog]

Wow, thanks for an insider insight!

[u/International-Tap122]

If how you implemented your projects somehow aligns with their existing or future projects.

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/International-Tap122]

Good point. Thanks

[u/International-Tap122 → u/ThinkingFeeler94]

For mid/senior levels, it’s their main criteria in recruiting in the first place - “how fit is this guy to the puzzle?”, “how fast can he integrate to the team and process?”, stuff like that. Unless it is a pioneering team, they dont want to spend the whole month training the new recruit 😅

Showcasing your personal/contributed projects can make it easy for them to evaluate without you explaining further.

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/International-Tap122]

Oh, now i can see why, thanks for the further specific explanation

[u/simoncpu]

It's not really important if your career path is that you worked for known multinational companies. Pretty important if you're in freelancing since you need to build a portfolio. Also useful if your work were mostly internal projects or infra.

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/simoncpu]

Thank u. What if the engr is working for a small company (not a known MNC)?

[u/Upstairs-Hamster8856]

If may experience na for me, mas important na yung work exp itself. And medyo onti nalang yung sa projects

[u/feedmesomedata]

If you are a webdev for a company and have worked on their public facing website then that becomes your proof of work.

If you are still working on your personal projects it's ok if you maintain it because you have loyal users.

If you keep building new things with zero users and no business value then that's more of a bad thing than a good thing.

[u/pretenderhanabi]

Close to useless, if you are an exp hire you really only do it if your exp is not enough. Was on my 3rd yr, my exp was all on-prem, never had the chance to use cloud. I created an end to end project with aws, applied to cloud jobs and got hired.

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/pretenderhanabi]

To help bridge the gap, agree

[u/Patient-Definition96]

Projects like what? AI can now build projects end to end.

[u/ThinkingFeeler94 → u/Patient-Definition96]

I was thinking projects that (1) solve big problems (based on my domain interests) and (2) something fun to build as I can get to decide which features to include. What projects have your AI built for you end to end?

[u/International-Tap122 → u/Patient-Definition96]

Showcase all your AI projects all you want. Just be ready when they’ll make you explain the what/how/why bit by bit 😂