These are good points, but I don't think they are specific to open source projects. You could get the same results by asking the interviewee to tell you about a time they enjoyed writing code they were not required to.

@MichaelJ. It's an engineer thing. If you're a mechanical engineer, how is it that you don't have little projects lying around? At lunch, one guy makes his own bullets, another has a 3D printer and so forth. Also SW is really hard to measure since it has no physical existence.

@Michael, I don't think SW development is unique. Take graphic design for example, would you hire a candidate without seeing any of their work? The problem with SW development is that much of the 'corporate' work is going to be unavailable, so you are limited in what you have access to. I am in the same position as DarkMatter, and ask the question for the same reason. I really want to see some code (or at least hear them talk about it) so that I can gauge their experience.

@DarkMatter Thanks for your answer. You raise some valid points, but I have also attended a number of interviews where there has been a coding exercise - which is obviously set to test someone's ability to understand/ write code. I have also had coding assessments sent to me to do over a few days, between a first & second round interview- I feel like these are much more appropriate ways to test someone's coding ability- particularly as you can then set such an exercise to test explicitly the things you are looking out for as measures of good practice/ red flags.

@MarcBernier I see your point, but I look at something like graphic design as being more of an 'art', than a skill that you have trained in. Yes, I know it's likely that you will have trained in whatever your art is, but the output is, generally speaking, subjective- how much it's appreciated depends on the person assessing it. It's not as quantifiable as a bit of code that fulfils a specific business requirement.

@someone2088 At the next mass recruitment event I'll be one of 6 recruiters and I'll talk to 50 people. That's like 10 people an hour.

@someone2088 Coding assignments are imperfect tools, and can't speak to the long-term work ethic of a perspective employee. Also, you mentioned in your question that you've been doing contract work. I imagine that a company hiring an engineer for a short term assignment would be even more eager to find signals that suggest they're getting a good hire, as they won't have the opportunity to develop a contractor the way they would be able to develop a full-time employee.

@MarcBernier - You state that you "at least [want to] hear them talk about" their code - It is quite possible for someone to talk about code that they don't own and can't share. And if a junior programmer can describe the architecture of the system he/she has been working on, answer questions about it, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, that is more valuable (IMHO) then looking at the code from some side project they did just because it is now 'required'.

@MichaelJ. Other professions have the same thing: artists have their folders of previous work, musicians can point to recordings. Not sure about crafts, but I'd expect e.g., a carpenter could also show you a piece he did during his training.

I'm not sure I understand this. @DarkMatter (correct me if I'm wrong but) You're saying .. "When hiring totally inexperience folks, I will give them a chance to show me hobbyist crap." If so, that's kind and generous of you. Super. But if I'm not mistaken, the OP is complaining "As a professional programmer, people keep asking me to show them hobbyist crap." Is this about right?

@MichaelJ. sometimes yes. Good doctors and surgeons are often members of professional associations and do research in their spare time.

"Similarly, life is too short to do something you hate (or even don't like), I've seen lots of people burn out after five or ten years." Spending a day programming at work then spending your night programming at home is a great way to burn out after five or ten years.

"I do a lot of students" Steady 😂

@MichaelJ. Example from experience: Theoretical biology professor collecting moths and participating in various 'Citizen Science' projects without it being relevant to their career/work. Biologists being field guides on bird- plant- animal watching trips. History teachers guiding tourist groups for trip plus food plus extremely minimal per diem. Etc. The crucial difference (as Motosubatsu started their answer with) is NDAs. So it's not SW-vs-the-rest, but there's NDAs and client/practitioner privacy laws to keep track of; law and medical cases are rather easy to anonymize unless high-profile.

@Fattie "hobbyist crap" includes open source projects such as Ubuntu, or First Robotics, or the Sun Seeker program. Every mass recruiting event I've gone to has people mention they're involved but it's unpaid and not on their resume. To be fair I don't bother with this technique in an on site interview where I have access to a white board and can ask code questions. However habits die hard and I wouldn't be shocked if someone else does simply because everyone involved probably talks to 50 students for every professional.

DM, I would just say that for every four million (that's not a random number, it's my estimate) of what can only, in all fairness, be labelled "Hobbyist Crap", sure there are .. what would you say, five? six? ... world-famous incredibly important "open source" projects. Sure, there are many, many (maybe a hundred - hell, maybe two hundred) professional, serious open source handy libraries etc. But you referencing "ubuntu!" is a bit like me dismissing them all as hobbyist crap, you know? Heh! Cheers!

@Fattie I know a lot of engineers who do "hobbyist" stuff enough to make an interesting conversation. Locally we have two world class "hobby" engineering programs. It comes up often enough that it's worth my time to ask that question when I'm on the "cattle call" line.

I have no doubt that other professions do work in their profession during their free time "for fun" or as a "hobbyist". I also have no doubt that these professionals will have an advantage over other professionals in their field. The point remains though. There are many ways to demonstrate competence and experience in a particular field. Only SW developers seem to be limited to a single way by pointing to coding projects they have done in their free time.

If you're interested in any technology, you're usually somewhat interested in all technologies. I write software for a living. I use to work as a machinist and still do as a hobby. I used to build and repair musical instruments, I still do that in my shop. I tinkered with electronics as a preteen, still do. I want to know who interviewees are and what else they might bring to the table that's not in the formal job description. I have no expectations or demands, but I'd rather not hire someone who is working strictly for the paycheck, but at least partly because they find the work interesting.

@Fattie There's thousands of important open source projects that are relied upon by commercial software. A typical spring project is going to have 100+ dependencies, and that's just one part of your stack. Plus, even within the same language, using a different a top level framework will probably mean mostly different deps. Also, I've worked on software stacks with like 6 languages before. So you need a whole new set of libraries / projects for each of those. And "hobbyist crap" includes any of those projects.

@MichaelJ. It's not exactly easy (and possibly not legal) to practice law or medicine outside the job. Even in those, there's an increasing tendency towards such people commenting on the matters in their off time, which is effectively the equivalent. However, it's a much smaller range of opportunities and thus less visible and less important to the professions.