Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

Re:Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? by michaelbuckbee on Sunday December 03, 2023 @06:52PM (#38512047)

I built https://foragoodstrftime.com ~10 years ago as I was sick of reading the docs for date formatting.

It generally gets around 1000 users a day.

Over the years, it's gotten me consulting gigs and the occasional job offer (amidst other projects).

Today, it sends a decent chunk of the traffic and sign-ups to my startup, Wafris -> https://wafris.org

OP's asking for a strategy with these, and the advice I'd offer is to treat them like assets. You make these various side projects to learn something, take the extra 20% of time to package it up buy a domain, and spend $10 on a logo or something to make it a little more like a project and not just a repo.

If it's not something directly usable like this, take some screenshots and collect them into a gallery on a personal site.

You stack these assets over time (and like my example above), they pay off over years in all sorts of ways.

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Re:Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? by aaronmiler on Sunday December 03, 2023 @09:13PM (#38512974)

Just want to say thank you. I've used your site tons over the years, it's been a great resource

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Re:Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? by michaelbuckbee on Monday December 04, 2023 @08:07AM (#38516772)

You're welcome! It's honestly a great feeling just to have other devs use your work.

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Re:Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? by Brajeshwar on Sunday December 03, 2023 @10:53PM (#38513553)

I just started recently, and I regret not taking screenshots or archiving websites that mentioned me and my work. I always believed that they would stay because they are the big brands, but nope- content gets regularly removed. Also, if not for your job and career, keep exciting records of the history of your life for you and your family.

I love your suggestions. I'm starting to keep digital archives -- domains, thoughts, alternate thoughts, documentation, etc.

My startup was acqui-hired in 2009. I kept the domain for records to tell the truth about people going around narrating weird stories in interviews and online articles. Early this year, I finally finished selling off all of that digital property -- the domain and a tiny component we wrote during the early years. That is the end of an era from 2006, when the domain was registered based on an idea, to 2023, when everything got sold.

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Re:Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? by michaelbuckbee on Monday December 04, 2023 @08:07AM (#38516767)

Check the WaybackMachine - might be enough for you to pull some things out of.

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