As someone who was a recruiter for a long time... Recruiters don't care about side projects. What they care about is being able to say a candidates has some technical interests outside of work. Do you give talks? Attend a meetup often? Record a technical podcast? Grind leetcode? Mentor engineers? Maybe you don't do any of that shit and you just go home and enjoy your life after work. That is fine too.
But what a recruiter is looking for is something they can add to your blurb when they pass along your information.
"throwaway account is currently at moonshot company using python and django to do xyz on a customer facing application. The platform is used by 50k users weekly. They also attend the SF python meetup regularly to stay connected to other python engineers."
It's not going to get you a job on its own but it's a small plus.
But what a recruiter is looking for is something they can add to your blurb when they pass along your information.
"throwaway account is currently at moonshot company using python and django to do xyz on a customer facing application. The platform is used by 50k users weekly. They also attend the SF python meetup regularly to stay connected to other python engineers."
It's not going to get you a job on its own but it's a small plus.