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Hi all, is there any guidance on putting personal/side projects on a resume? In particular,

  • Should these go on a resume at all?
  • If so, should I mix them with my job history, or as a separate "Relevant Personal Projects" section at the bottom (before education details?)

Specifics below:

I'm an electrical and software engineer, but I'm also a musician in my spare time. A position I'm applying for wants experience with Altium Designer, analog circuit design, and also mentions "experience with sound recording and editing is helpful."

While I do have experience with Altium in a professional environment, I also recently used Altium to design an analog guitar pedal for myself on my own time. Not only that, I mixed an album for my band last year as well!

So for most positions, I would consider these irrelevant or redudent, if not a downright detriment (will Matt be focused on work if he has a history of all this other stuff on the side?). But for this position, these are both about as directly applicable to the position as you can get.

In summary, I think these are both worthy of mention for this job, but I'm not sure if and how they should go on the resume. Or should I just mention these on my cover letter and leave it at that?

Thanks!

Matt