Some companies value your off-work activity more than your experience. Is it fair? No, it's just lazy.
Your off-work activity shows passion in the job, and passion is definitely a valuable characteristic for any hire, independently of the field. However, there are definitely more ways to evaluate it. Plus, there are characteristics that are more important than passion. So, as a company, if I rely heavily on this item to assess a candidate, I am probably not doing a good job.
In some companies, this can also give an edge compared to other applicants. A good Github profile, for example, can show your level of expertise in coding quite nicely. However, your knowledge and expertise will have to be assessed anyway in an interview. If a company heavily relies on such elements for a hire, they are probably looking for shortcuts.
Do I like to work on side projects, give tech talks, write blog posts? Hell yeah! But this is orthogonal to my career :)
Right. You just landed on a very important topic here: hiring processes are flawed if they judge candidates for their "passion" only. Whether they value this in their screenings is irrelevant, what matters is how they see you as a whole.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
Some companies value your off-work activity more than your experience. Is it fair?
No, it's just lazy.
Your off-work activity shows passion in the job, and passion is definitely a valuable characteristic for any hire, independently of the field. However, there are definitely more ways to evaluate it. Plus, there are characteristics that are more important than passion. So, as a company, if I rely heavily on this item to assess a candidate, I am probably not doing a good job.
In some companies, this can also give an edge compared to other applicants. A good Github profile, for example, can show your level of expertise in coding quite nicely. However, your knowledge and expertise will have to be assessed anyway in an interview. If a company heavily relies on such elements for a hire, they are probably looking for shortcuts.
Do I like to work on side projects, give tech talks, write blog posts?
Hell yeah! But this is orthogonal to my career :)
Right. You just landed on a very important topic here: hiring processes are flawed if they judge candidates for their "passion" only. Whether they value this in their screenings is irrelevant, what matters is how they see you as a whole.