Hiring Managers Don’t Care About Your Projects. Here’s Why.

Hiring managers don’t care about your personal projects. And if I had to start over in AI today, I would not spend my time building side projects hoping they land me a job. The tech job market is tough right now, especially for junior engineers and students. Entry-level roles often ask for years of experience, and the internet keeps repeating the same advice: build projects, build more projects, and eventually you’ll get hired. That advice sounds logical, but it does not match how hiring actually works. After nearly 20 years in tech and having interviewed hundreds of engineers as a hiring manager at Meta, I can tell you this clearly: personal projects that live on GitHub do not move the needle for landing engineering jobs. Code that runs locally is very different from working on production systems with real users, real data, and real consequences. In this video, I break down why projects are great for learning but weak as a hiring signal, why recruiters and hiring managers rarely look at GitHub, and what actually counts as experience when companies are hiring software engineers and AI engineers. I also explain what I would do instead if I were starting over today, whether you are a student, a career switcher, or someone trying to break into AI. We talk about internships, real-world production experience, creating your own opportunities, and how to think about risk from a hiring manager’s perspective. If you are trying to figure out how to become an AI engineer, how to land a tech job, or how to stand out in a competitive engineering job market, this video will save you a lot of wasted time. This is not motivational content. This is how hiring actually works. ⏱️Timestamp: ============== 0:00 The Job Market 0:37 The Problem 2:02 Hiring Managers Want 3:25 Internships 4:39 Building Experience 6:00 Work as Investment 7:39 Find Opportunities 9:06 Create Opportunities 📎 Resources: ============== ✅ FREE AI ML Roadmap Self Study Plan (16-page PDF Guide) https://www.exalt