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The negative view is that they want you to be so addicted to creating things, that you work 80 hours a week for them without regard to your health and well-being.

A positive view is that they want to see code samples and don’t know how to just ask for some

Employers want to see passion and drive. Some companies call those things leadership qualities.

Someone who is passionate, should be passionate about anything they set their mind to. So being well rounded is a plus.

Beware of companies that want to squeeze you for all you’re worth until you’re just a hollowed out lemon. There are lots of them out there.

As other answers have already touched upon this is a route towards being able to provide code samples that a free of any restrictions upon the candidate (no NDAs or anything to worry about).

By far the larger factor however is that companies expect it simply because it's very often the case. Those who go on to become professional software developers often start out as hobbyists and retain the hobby as they grow up. And since people don't generally do hobbies they hate doing (at least that's not exactly Plan A!) and people who enjoy doing what their job entails are less likely to be half-checked out and clock watching all day.

Personally in 15 years of working as a dev, with quite a few of them spent managing and hiring other devs I've never seen any strong indicator that those who have their "own" projects are "better" workers than those who don't.

For every developer who loves writing any code so much that they spend 12 hours a day in the office working on company stuff until the cleaning crew kicks them out there's another who can't wait to get home and work on what they want to be working on rather than whatever it is the company asked them to do that day, and that's not someone who's bringing their A-game in to the office!

Of course the way job hunting works has meant that now many devs do outside projects more for the CV then for the fun. Which of course only re-enforces the "need" to have external projects you can espouse at interview time. Which of course gives you the poor sap behind door #3 - who doesn't really want to be doing personal projects for hours every evening/weekend but fears not getting hired if they don't!

Speaking as a R&D SW engineer who also does SW recruiting and interviewing (and who asks exactly that question)...

1) SW often involves absurd levels of complexity and training. I want to hire someone who is going to be productive for years or decades. If SW is just a stepping stone to get inside the company and then leave for sales (a RL example) then all the time spent training you and all the SW-specific legacy information you have is lost and my time was wasted.

2) 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.

3) Experience Matters. If you're a Junior in college then you have X amount of exposure from college. If you have been doing this since high school then you have X+Y. If you've been doing this from high school and also do it as a hobby then it's X+Y+Z.

4) The difference in productivity between a good SW person and a bad SW person is like 10x or more. Which you are is hard to tease out during an interview. Classwork is useless to me for this for multiple reasons. Hobbies are often months or years of work (classwork is often weeks) and give a better idea on accomplishments.

5) People like to talk about their hobbies, it's a way to relate and relax.

6) I tend to treat all interviews the same, I do a lot of students. Many/most students have horrible resumes. They'll have tons of useful experience in First Robotics and leave it off their resume because they didn't get paid, and instead talk about their minimum wage job mowing lawns or waiting on tables.

I don't care how much you got paid (my company has money, we can pay you), I care about your useful experience regardless of whether or not you got paid. Students don't get that so I need to ask.

7) It's a good way to give someone the opportunity to bullshit me... or dazzle me. I'm also in this field, I'll probably know the difference.

Advice: If you like to mental/logic games in your spare time and view SW as that sort of thing, then mention that.

My answer is the assumption that these managers and interviewers went to conferences.

I've been to various developer conferences and one of the themes there is community. They push this idea that a solid developer is someone who contributes to their overall product base. In my situation, I went to php conferences and they heavily push people to commit to open source projects. Pushing to commit to the actual php source code base wasn't a top agenda, but pushing into framework and so forth is really a huge agenda they strike up at various talks.

The reason behind this is obvious when you look at their credentials. They're into the framework community so keeping it alive and getting people to use it are big points for them.

On the attending guests side, I think a lot of people take it into heart without regard to the background of the speaker who is presenting this idea. At my last company, we went to several of these conferences and when we came back, it was a big deal that each of us started to contribute to open source projects. They even had their own internal conference pushing the very same idea that a good developer is someone who contributes to open source. It's even on job ads they post out that committing is a huge plus.

So I think that is why it's "expected." The people pushing these frameworks getting the idea out that you should be committing and contributing. It also falls into the old Unix idea of the past. That's how Unix got so popular thanks to open source and community contribution.

It simply happens that software development can be an extremely low cost but rewarding hobby. So it is very common to see developers with their personal projects on the side and that is sometimes seen as the norm.

Another part of the reason is employers want to see proof of skills and asking for code you have written is one way to go about it, a lazy one IMO. Also doing programming on the side means you can be easily convinced to work overtime since you already like it.

I would say you are not missing out by not getting offers just because you cannot show personal projects. Interviews are a two-sided process and you are naturally filtering out companies with cultures that would not fit you, since seems like you want work-life balance.

I agree with the basic points of RibaldEddie's answer, but its loaded with enough negative value judgements that I think it misses the mark.

Some passionate, talented engineers are driven to build and create even when they're not being paid for it. Asking about extracurricular projects is way to probe for that passion and talent by giving the candidate a stage to brag about a project they chose for themselves.

Is extracurricular work required to be a passionate, talented engineer? Of course not. However, those people who work on their own time may look for that same characteristic in others.

I think you're confusing two aspects of that question. Yes, there is a (sick, imho) fashion for developers who breathe code 24/7. But what you're overlooking is that your contributions on github give a publicly-accessible code sample. And that can be very important to a possible employer. It also talks to your ability to work cooperatively, in a way that's not mandated by your employer. And often throws in a bit of a writing sample as well.

So maybe offer to give a code sample when the question is asked? And do consider contributing something to some public project so that you can give interviewers what they're really after.

I think what makes software development special is that it solves a broad range of everyday problems. Be it modding computer games, customized home automation, the web portal for your hobby-club, or fixing a bug in the open source software you use - there are so many opportunities to use your skills. Those are also very diversified ways to apply your skills - free from many restrictions you have in the professional context.

If I see an application without any personal projects, it makes me a bit skeptical. It means I have a harder time evaluating the skills of the candidate - but I certainly try. For better or worse - having hobby-software-projects is common among software developers. This does of course raise some expectations.

It's only expected of you if you are expecting a top-tier job as a programmer. Because the demand outweighs the number of available position, they have the luxury to be picky. And being picky, why wouldn't you want someone who loves code so much that he also code in his spare time. Meaning that he also challenges himself to new things and is basically learning faster and is more current in knowledge than most.

"is that I often get asked whether I have any of my own projects that I can talk about..."

I have never asked anyone this (and certainly never been asked it).

Could it be that you're thinking of your experience more when you were an absolute beginner (ie, at a time when you did not have any actual products that you have worked on, to discuss).

"why does it seem to be accepted that software developers are expected to be working on [hobbyist crap] "

Maybe it is a regional thing, but I don't see that as accepted or usual.

Who cares about hobbyist stuff?

Maybe it's a quirk of your particular field, OP?

I think the good news is, if you've had this experience it's "just bad luck". I would forget about it.

This is the reason.. Employers wants you to work more than 40 or 45 hours per week so if you can't spent more time in your work they want to know if you are able to do that out of work time. There is a simple example by Elon Musk (Tesla CEO): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/11/27/elon-musk-workers-should-put-80-hours-week-change-world/

Good issue !

My answer is not all what I think about the matter, but rather limited this site's topic.

There are companies who prefer their developer to have hobby projects. There are companies which prefer they not (yes there are).

I think you should anyway avoid companies which are too insisting on this matter to either direction. After all, it's you own business how do you spend your spare time.

Otherwise, I think you should be ok if you just say that you do not do hobby programming. Just make you you stay respectful to those who chooses to do hobby programming.