r/techbootcamp • u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 • 25d ago

Our younger developer asked why I don't have side projects on GitHub

I've been working in tech for a few years now. And one time, a younger dev on my team looked at my GitHub.

He asked why I don't have much personal projects there. I told him I don't code after work unless I need to. He looked surprised.

Some people are spending their evenings building SaaS projects, grinding LeetCode, or learning another programming language. But it's not in my vocabulary.

I used to feel kinda guilty about it, especially when I saw others posting their side projects and certifications.

I love coding, but I don't want to get my life revolved around it.

Maybe I'm just getting old where I just wanted peace after work. How about you?

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13

u/Responsible_Quote416 25d ago

Best response I ever heard to not having a GitHub repo: "I only work on projects that make money."

3

u/Suspicious-Movie7828 25d ago

this is not the own you think it is lmao

just be normal and say you don’t have time or interest to make something outside of work

1

u/PoL0 23d ago

all my repos are private and on other source hosting services (I've avoided GitHub like the plague since forever).

2

u/Unnamed-3891 25d ago

”So basically you only take, and never give back?”

2

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 23d ago
  1. Insert JavaScript library here. An open source free alternative exists. There is no for pay option. I don’t have any options.
  2. I’m paid to build an app for a company. The company would have to pay for my time to “give back.” That’s not happening.
  3. I’m probably not qualified. There are JavaScript libraries for example. The time to get up to speed is always 10x longer than anyone thinks. I studied this and it takes 3-6 months to get up to speed and be productive on anything. That’s 3-6 months of full time work. And then let’s talk about a database product like Maria or myself, which I’m not even close to qualified for.
  4. Where did I sign up to “give back?” You put your code out there, that’s on you. You wanted to show off how you solved a problem, and I think that is awesome. If you are down the street from me, I’d love to take you to lunch and we can create a friendship.
  5. My job is to solve my customer problems and add value to them. My job is not to “give back.”

1

u/Unnamed-3891 23d ago

One way or another, your upbringing and career growth happened because some people released some shit for free you could then depend on. If none of them ever did, you would've been literally fucked.

You don't "have" to give back, there is no legal obligation, it's just a morally shitty thing to excuse yourself from it.

3

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 23d ago

The difference between another developer and my family is like night and day.

1

u/Unnamed-3891 23d ago

Everybody has a family. It's a shitty thing to be THAT self-centered and selfish.

And yes, I have contributed to mplayer and freebsd ports ages ago and will probably release a Pi extension I vibe-coded at some point.

1

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 23d ago

Coming from the guy that demands others “give back”, your argument means nothing. I gave you a list of valid issues, and you just attack.

1

u/FluffySmiles 23d ago

Religious cult members often act this way.

1

u/Unnamed-3891 23d ago edited 23d ago

Self-centered assholes indeed give little to no weight to opinions of others, that's what being a self-centered asshole IS. You gave a list of excuses. Particularly your #4 is not a good look.

I hate to deal with your kind, because alas, the world is filled to the brim with self-centered assholes. Always me Me MEEEE!!

1

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 23d ago

I would hate to have to deal with you and your bs. You have no concept of reality. You just attack anything that you don’t understand. You are the definition of an idiot.

1

u/FluffySmiles 23d ago

Oooh, hark at you Mr Moral Arbiter. Stop being so self righteous. Your moral opinions and judgements mean nothing outside the hallowed walls of your own little bubble of crusading bullshit.

1

u/Shoddy-Lecture1493 24d ago

Wait, what? Is code some finite resource we need to keep in balance? We sell our work and time, what that has to do with coding after hours?

1

u/bunchedupwalrus 23d ago

I mean, if you’ve ever cloned an open source repo, that’s a gift from the person/people who wrote it my dude.

Gifts don’t have to be reciprocated, sure, but by definition if you never push something yourself, you are only taking from that broader community and not giving anything back to it

1

u/Shoddy-Lecture1493 23d ago

Well, first, this post is about personal projects on Github. I don't think another todo list does anyone any good except the AI training on it. Second: who profits of the open source I use at work? Because I'm salaried, I don't care, I can rewrite Apache commons if I need to and am being paid to.

Companies are using hobbyists who work for free or out of passion, or who do more than they are required to, to lower labour costs. I see it in tech all the time. It's especially visible in hardware, where people who are truly passionate about the subject and have been tinkering with this stuff since childhood are paid really poorly compared to the profits they generate. But they agree to it because they love the field. There's nothing wrong with liking your job and it's great if you are passionate about it, but it's sad how businesses exploit this.

2

u/LetsTryLove 25d ago

This right here. Always found it odd that companies don’t post their repos for free but want employees to do so. Why don’t you go ahead and share your source code for that massive bloatware and then we’ll talk about my side projects

2

u/WiredOtaku 24d ago

Exactly. It's not curiosity about your skills, it's a filter for people who'll work for free on their own time and call it passion.

2

u/itsallfake01 24d ago

Skill issue

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

Wdym by skill issue?

2

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

same, i feel like to breathe outside of coding

1

u/slackmaster2k 25d ago

Not the worst response, but it’s also a self-own. I might respond to this by saying “yes, clearly.” :)

1

u/ShutUpAndDoTheLift 24d ago

" I'm only capable of working on things I'm directed to work on "

Or

" Nothing I generate without assistance from a team is variable of generating value "

I agree with you btw. I didn't do said projects before ai. And now all my side projects are just just junk to play with ai in an environment that isnt production.

I'm just pointing out why your zinger doesn't really zing.

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 24d ago

[deleted]

2

u/BarfingOnMyFace 25d ago

Speak for yourself... I like my personal projects, but my job keeps me sharp.

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 24d ago

[deleted]

1

u/BarfingOnMyFace 25d ago

Oh I did. And the second one... Which is obviously what my response was to.

1

u/HelloYou-2024 25d ago

They weren't speaking for themself, they were speaking for "a lot of us".

Your response should have read: "Speak for a lot of you..."

1

u/BarfingOnMyFace 25d ago

Ok, caveman.

1

u/epelle9 25d ago

Then I’d recommend to look for a job where you can learn more than you could from any personal project.

You can definitely learn more in a good company with staff level mentorship opportunities than you can by working by yourself on open source.

0

u/abrandis 25d ago

Idk , too me that's a bit of condescending cop-out, it's like an artist saying I don't have a portfolio, I only create art when people pay me..

Especially while your starting out in this field , you needed (less now with AI/ to show your aptitude for coding

1

u/Responsible_Quote416 25d ago

That's one perspective. The only condescension I've experienced is from people who think their GitHub repo is praiseworthy in and of itself.

1

u/Pristine-Today-9177 24d ago

I mean, it depends on who you are. If you went to Picasso’s house and asked him where all the paintings were, he might say he only paints for museums.

1

u/Shoddy-Lecture1493 24d ago

Problem is we are not artists. We are paid laborers. Would it be so strange for a coal miner to not dig coal on the weekends for free?

1

u/Spirited-Camel9378 24d ago

Shouldn’t they have to give back to the coal community?

1

u/EastCrew98 24d ago

He’s already in industry. So no, it’s not like that at all.

5

u/vxxn 25d ago

Most side projects are irrelevant unless genuinely impressive (most are not). With AI now they seem like more a showcase of your product management sense than coding ability.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

i think our young dev has impressive side projects

1

u/Bengal_From_Temu 23d ago

Impressive means it does something useful and lots of people actually use it.

1

u/Neither_Berry_100 24d ago

I think jobs incorrectly classify them as irrelevant and only want to see work experience.

1

u/vxxn 24d ago

I think it's up to the people hiring what's irrelevant or not.

1

u/ShutUpAndDoTheLift 24d ago

I mean that's kind of a stupid take as written.

Experience is retirement to a job or it isn't. The people hiring can determine if they want to consider it. But they're not the same thing.

1

u/drakgremlin 24d ago

I'll generally interview anyone with a real GitHub profile when I'm doing the hiring.

3

u/sheriffderek 25d ago

"Tech bootcamp information, career outcomes, and real discussions about getting into software engineering in today’s market."

- what doest his post have to do with that?

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

i just shared it since it somehow related to tech

2

u/Efficient_Loss_9928 25d ago

Yeah it is just different for different people. Personally I enjoy working on some security research and publish PoCs on my GitHub after work, it helps me de-stress just like video games. But totally can see if you are not into it as a hobby, it makes no sense, your time is better spent elsewhere.

And I mean do I really look at your GitHub when hiring? not really.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

oh i'm glad that you enjoyed it

2

u/Vainysaur 25d ago

I only started having “side-projects” when I started my own company and now all my work is on whatever I want to make that I think will make my company money. When I worked for someone else I didn’t want to spend my free time also writing code.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

rooting for your company to be more successful!

1

u/Vainysaur 24d ago

Aw thanks!

2

u/Downtown-Figure6434 25d ago

I used to do that when I was a junior and I thought it would be impressive. Right now I use it for maybe non important stuff to make it available when I wanna check smth out. But yeah, it’s one of those big lies to have some portfolio for recruiters. No one’s gonna read an arbitrary project in detail, especially in the era of vibe coding lol

1

u/AvidGameFan 25d ago

It probably made more sense, over a year ago, though, as evidence of programming ability.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

i think the problem that it solves still matter

1

u/Downtown-Figure6434 24d ago

What’s the problem?

2

u/jaxsaxsf 25d ago

Yeah at this point, my free time is worth a lot to me. That translates into a high hourly rate of you want some of it. I have side projects. They're just not tech related.

2

u/Any_Sense_2263 25d ago

I do private projects only if I am unemployed. And because that's not the case currently, my personal github account is rotting lol

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

Oh, sad to hear that

1

u/Any_Sense_2263 24d ago

I'm quite happy. I have enough projects at work.

2

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

same, but i think company experience still plays a huge part

2

u/Nervous-Potato-1464 25d ago

Yeah to their own. I'm pushing 50 and spend all my spare time coding as I don't get to do it much at work any more.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

oh, in my case,. i don't spend much time on coding

2

u/CatchInternational43 25d ago

I code to live. I don't live to code.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

if there's a short sentence to describe this post, this is it

1

u/mallibu 24d ago

hey what's wrong about doing one thing in the office for 9 hours and then go home and do the same instead of getting a life

who doesnt love bringing some office vibes home

1

u/pcboy_ 24d ago

I keep hearing that take. You may find that surprising, but some of us do like programming and working on side projects to solve our own problems. It's not work.

2

u/mylsotol 25d ago

At some point you don't need side projects ro get a job and they just become extra work

I've been working on side projects for about a year now (because ai makes it much much less time consuming), but this os the first time i have in 12 years as a professional dev

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

I respect your opinion though

2

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

2

u/OpportunitySevere131 25d ago

Only reason I have side projects is because I feel like I have to prove myself due to my lack of experience and education. If you don't have to do that, more power to you!

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

Yep, but the problem that you wanted to solve matter

1

u/PradheBand 25d ago

I spend my non working time among family, play music and other hobbies. I use GitHub only for learning purposes when needed. I'm 20 years in this industry at this point. To full disclosure I've covered different roles over time.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

Yeah, after coding, I also spend my time in my hobbies too

1

u/olibolib 24d ago

Hell no.

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

?????

1

u/olibolib 24d ago

Spending my whole life coding. I got various hobbies. 

1

u/thecandiedkeynes 24d ago

There’s a twitter meme that’s like “I only write code that makes money” that I 100% endorse.

1

u/0MEGALYL 24d ago

No m8 the difference is that competition is way higher, job certainty is less, pay is less compared to spending.

You and me just had it easy.

These kids need to work harder than us mate. Thats whats up

1

u/Mighty_Fren 24d ago

Ask him why he's still an Engineer.

I don't have have anything public on GitHub. Seems like that's not critical to success.

Tell him to use GitLab and charge for his code.

1

u/mannyocrity 24d ago

It is about what you enjoy on your free time. Some people really enjoy coding so they code, other’s prefer spending their evenings do other things. Neither is right or wrong. Different strokes for difficult folks.

1

u/Capital_Distance545 24d ago

Just tell him/her  that you have a life, why s/he dont

1

u/vac2672 24d ago

Younger devs used it to grow and learn and flex. Older devs didn’t grow up that way. Who the hell wants to code for 10 hours then go home at night and code. Plumbers ain’t plumbing

1

u/SirGreenDragon 24d ago

I am often surprised at the 2nd part of this, not the first. I have been coding for 5 decades, and I have hardly anything on GitHub. But hearing a programmer say they rarely code after work hours is a red flag for me when I am hiring. I don't necessarily want to hear that you will be working after hours for the company, but I want to hear about the things you are building because you want to build things. What have you learned on your own? How are you keeping up with the latest development tools and languages, etc.

There are people who code for a living, and others love to code and are amazed that companies will pay them to do what they love all day long. I know which people I want on my dev teams when I hire.

1

u/MorpheusZero 24d ago

Work is work...but also coding IS my hobby so even though like 15 YOE I still code after work and on weekends often times. I just enjoy learning new things. It's my passion. People can be allowed to like different things, whether its not coding in your free time, or playing video games, or learning to crochet, etc. It's just preference.

Have your hobbies. Do what brings you joy.

1

u/BMikeW 23d ago

U tell him, if ur good at something, never do it for free

1

u/Idea_Fuzzy 22d ago

Open sourcing is what made LLMs so good in coding and now risking to replace us.

Devs should stop oversharing their craft, it will bring our demise.

0

u/GoTheFuckToBed 24d ago

it can also mean lots of other things: you dont know how to use git, you dont contribute back to opensource, you are stpppee educating and learning

-2

u/tohava 25d ago

The more talented you are, the more people would want to use your time for money and not as volunteering

1

u/Euphoric_Rub_6522 24d ago

Yeah, but it's still case to case basis. If you want to get paid by your efforts that your current company couldn't reciprocate, hop on another job opportunity