Ask HN: How to discuss side-gig work on a job interview

4 points by globba22 10 years ago | 4 comments

I've had a few job interviews recently in which I felt unsure how to discuss my paid, freelance projects.

In my case, I have taken on freelance jobs doing machine learning and NLP for small companies that don't have budget or need to hire an ML engineer full time. In my day job, I do a lot of data engineering and data warehousing work and very little modeling.

My side work is more in line with the type of work I am going for, so I'd like to be able to highlight those projects in an interview, but so far have avoided discussing them in depth or even putting them on my resume. As a result I feel I am categorized as being a great fit for a data eng role, but not enough experience for data science or machine learning.

Generally speaking, do companies look down on candidates who take on side work in addition to their FT job?

I suppose it varies depending on the type of company, but curious to hear how others in the HN community have handled the situation.

Gustomaximus 10 years ago |

> Generally speaking, do companies look down on candidates who take on side work in addition to their FT job?

I generally would avoid. I've seen people who don't like after hours work attachments and feel someone with a side gig will be distracted and is just there til things get better at their other opportunities. I used to think this way when first exposed to employees working on personal side businesses. I soon realised these tend to be hard working who often bring energy and initiative to their work than standard. Id now I'd almost see this as a plus but would guess I'm in the minority. Also if I know an prospective employee was doing this I would want to discuss and make it clear the FT job is the priority for SHTF days/weeks/months plus there should never be the slightest inkling of working with anything competitive.

If you are going to talk about it I'd point out additional skills and variety it brings. How it keeps your skills up to date in areas beyond your FT job and how sometimes you can bring this knowledge back to the business. I'd also point out the FT job comes first as this is just a bit of fun as you're doing it out of interest for technology vs needing the money.

atmosx 10 years ago |

> My side work is more in line with the type of work I am going for, so I'd like to be able to highlight those projects in an interview, but so far have avoided discussing them in depth or even putting them on my resume. As a result I feel I am categorized as being a great fit for a data eng role, but not enough experience for data science or machine learning.

In that case I think you should put the projects on you resume and politely try to steer the conversation to those projects. Theoretically they will be more interested in those projects, if that's what they'd want you do to.

> Generally speaking, do companies look down on candidates who take on side work in addition to their FT job?

I wouldn't discuss this in the interview but would ask my lead engineer when I'm settled. There's no need to discuss this a priori, except if you plan to prioritize side-projects (which doesn't make sense).

globba22 10 years ago |

Thanks for the responses, folks.

Based on tips here and other feedback I've gotten, I think it is worthwhile to discuss my side work if I think it's relevant to a potential role, but emphasize that it doesn't conflict with my main job.

The reality is that I am doing this side work both because it's really fun and it's the type of experience I am looking to gain (that my regular job doesn't provide). I'd be glad to put it aside when I start a new role.

To put it another way, if I weren't doing this side work, I'd be doing similar personal projects.

tixocloud 10 years ago |

From a prospective employer's point of view, for the most part, they will only care whether you can deliver. If those side gigs are going to be a distraction and I'm not getting any value from you, then it's not a good situation.

You need to convince them that you won't be distracted and you will still be able to deliver efficiently. You can also tell them that your side gigs help you learn new skills, which in turn, can be applied to your day job.