Side Projects That Make Your Resume Shine ✨
“Should I work on my resume, network, practice leetcode, or build side projects?”
I get this question all the time. Landing a software engineering internship or full-time job is tougher than ever, and conflicting advice makes it even harder to prioritize limited time.
Let’s focus on side projects: they sound great in theory, but how much do they actually help? Let’s explore how to approach them effectively and which kinds of projects, in my view, are most likely to make a real impact.
Real-Life Experience > Side Projects
First, let’s address the elephant in the room: real-world experience, like internships, almost always outweighs side projects. Why?
Collaboration Matters: Internships involve mentors, peers, and managers who observe your work and teach you to collaborate effectively — something a solo side project can’t replicate.
Complexity Counts: Contributing to a large, real-world codebase forces you to step out of your comfort zone and tackle challenges far beyond classroom coding.
No number of small side projects can demonstrate these critical skills.
Avoid Small, Unoriginal Projects
Building calculators, to-do apps, or simple ML models isn’t enough to stand out in today’s competitive job market. These types of projects, while great for learning, often lack the impact needed to truly shine. To be clear, I’m not suggesting these projects are useless — we all start somewhere, and they can be valuable stepping stones.
If you already have a small project you’re proud of, consider extending it in a meaningful way. For example, if you’ve built a to-do app, you could enhance it with features like AI-driven task suggestions, reminders, or progress tracking to make it more innovative and impactful. Quality definitely trumps quantity here. I’d rather see one impressive project than five small ones cluttering your resume.
How to Build a Meaningful Side Project
If you’re going to invest time in a side project, make it count. Here’s how I would do it:
Form a Team: Partner with friends or classmates with complementary skills — e.g., someone who loves frontend development, another who’s strong in backend, and perhaps someone interested in cloud computing.
Pick a Real Problem: Brainstorm a project that solves a real-world problem in a non-trivial way. It doesn’t have to change the world — just make it practical and impactful. For instance, a group of students I chatted with built a campus laundry tracker to optimize machine usage. It was simple but effective and showed creativity and initiative.
Share and Iterate: Get people to use your project — friends, family, professors, or mentors. Share it on LinkedIn and incorporate feedback to simulate real-world development. A well-documented and shared project often has more impact than an unadvertised GitHub repository. I don’t believe many people take the time to click on and explore GitHub links of your projects.
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
Highlighting Your Project
Once your project is complete, emphasize these aspects on your resume:
Collaboration: Emphasize your teamwork and specific contributions. For example, mention the size of the team, how you coordinated effectively, and the components of the project you developed.
Impact: Quantify your results whenever possible. For instance, “Enhanced X by Y% through Z.”
Complexity: Highlight the technical challenges and solutions. Include details like deployment methods, database usage, and the scale of user adoption. Try to pick technologies that are aligned with the job descriptions you are interested in.
This kind of project won’t just make your resume shine — it can also help you confidently answer behavioral interview questions, which are underrated but super important.
When Collaborative Side Projects Might Not Be the Best Option For You
Side projects aren’t for everyone. If you’re really struggling with coding interviews, maybe focus on practicing leetcode instead. If you have strong internships but cannot get any interviews, prioritize networking. However, if you’re early in your career, don’t have internship experience, don’t have anything lined up for winter or summer breaks, or just want to strengthen your skills, building a meaningful side project can be a game-changer.
If you don’t have peers or classmates to collaborate with on a side project, contributing to open-source projects can be an excellent alternative as they provide a reasonable amount of collaboration and are usually fairly complex. Just make sure that what you are contributing is complex enough to write a few bullet points about.
Final Thoughts
Small, unoriginal projects won’t help you stand out in today’s competitive job market. Instead, invest your time in a meaningful, collaborative project that tackles a real-world problem. Share your work widely, gather feedback, and showcase it on your resume with quantified achievements and impact. This approach not only highlights your technical skills but also demonstrates initiative, collaboration, and problem-solving.
If you and your friends decide to build something, let me know — I’d love to hear about it!
I am a software engineer and mentor, dedicated to helping international students and early career professionals not only survive but thrive in tech. ☀️ Check out the links on my profile 🌟 I am an amazon employee but thoughts are my own.