People should spend their time doing things they like. I don't think people should feel bad, or like they lack balance because they enjoy programming side projects. People should do them because they enjoy them. (Like exercise, people who don't, usually only mean to do them. And that's fine).
They are important in a careers way though. Not so much because 'you need code samples' - there is a skills shortage you know. It's more that at large companies, you learn to be a Facebook Programmer, rather than a programmer. Goldman Sacs apparently have their own private programming language.
Side projects let you do things that are not your job. That is why they are fun (rather than more of the same). Some places, programmers never get to decide what they build (they get a list of features). Some programmers are 'test engineers', or maintenance engineers, and never write greenfield code. A lone inhouse programmer in a non IT company might enjoy working on opensource stuff and actually talking to someone about what they write.
And you do need that. I've work with plenty of C++ people who have never touched a dynamically typed language. One day they will need to - the world always moves on faster than your team.
They are important in a careers way though. Not so much because 'you need code samples' - there is a skills shortage you know. It's more that at large companies, you learn to be a Facebook Programmer, rather than a programmer. Goldman Sacs apparently have their own private programming language.
Side projects let you do things that are not your job. That is why they are fun (rather than more of the same). Some places, programmers never get to decide what they build (they get a list of features). Some programmers are 'test engineers', or maintenance engineers, and never write greenfield code. A lone inhouse programmer in a non IT company might enjoy working on opensource stuff and actually talking to someone about what they write.
And you do need that. I've work with plenty of C++ people who have never touched a dynamically typed language. One day they will need to - the world always moves on faster than your team.