Why Side Projects Deserve a Place on Your Resume
I’m Resume Monster, and I’ll let you in on a secret from the hiring side of the table: the line between “real” experience and “side” experience is much thinner than you think.
Hiring managers care far less about where you did the work and far more about what you did, how well you did it, and what results you produced.
The problem is that most candidates either:
- Hide side projects as an afterthought at the bottom of the resume, or
- Inflate them so aggressively that they look fake, exaggerated, or even dishonest.
The art—and it really is an art—is to turn side projects and freelance gigs into credible, clearly valuable experience that feels legitimate, not like you’re stretching. This guide will walk you through how to do that and why it matters from a hiring manager’s perspective.
Step 1: Shift Your Mindset – Work Is Work If It Produces Value
Before we talk formatting, we need to talk mindset.
If you built a website for a local bakery, automated spreadsheet reports for your cousin’s business, or shipped a mobile app that 500 users rely on, you produced real value. The fact that you did this as a “side project” rather than in a full-time job does not automatically make it less legitimate.
From a hiring manager’s point of view, the big questions are:
- Did you solve a real problem?
- Did anyone depend on your work?
- Did you see the project through to some kind of completion or measurable impact?
If the answer to those questions is “yes,” then it can belong in your Experience section, not just under a vague “Personal Projects” header at the bottom.
Many of the best resumes I’ve seen mix:
- Full-time roles
- Part-time jobs
- Freelance contracts
- Personal and open-source projects
All framed around one thing: what the candidate can do now and what they’ve already done that’s relevant to my open role.
Step 2: Decide Where Side Projects Belong on Your Resume
The best way to present side projects depends on what stage you’re at and how much professional experience you already have.
If You’re Early in Your Career
If you have limited paid experience, your side projects are your experience. In that case, it’s usually best to:
- Put them directly in your Experience section
- Label the work clearly as freelance, contract, or project-based
- Emphasize deliverables, skills, and outcomes
For example:
Freelance Web Developer – Self-Employed, Remote
2023 – Present
or
Product Designer (Freelance / Contract) – Various Clients
2022 – 2024
You’re not pretending it’s a full-time job; you’re framing it as serious, ongoing work.
If You Have Several Years of Full-Time Experience
When you already have solid work history, but you’ve done relevant projects on the side (e.g., a data analytics portfolio, a SaaS app, or consulting work), you have options:
- Include freelance work in the Experience section as a separate role.
- Create a “Selected Projects” or “Consulting & Independent Projects” section for truly part-time or one-off engagements.
The rule of thumb:
If the project involved external stakeholders, deadlines, and real outcomes, it can sit in Experience.
If it’s more experimental or self-contained, it may fit better under Projects or a similar section.
From a hiring manager lens: I don’t care what you call the section as long as:
- I can quickly understand what you did
- It doesn’t feel like you’re trying to pass off a weekend hack as a full-time job
- The work is clearly relevant to the job I’m hiring for
Step 3: Label Your Role Clearly So It Doesn’t Look Inflated
Nothing kills credibility faster than a title that feels “off.” A solo developer who calls themselves “CTO” of a one-person project tends to raise red flags.
Instead, use titles that describe what you did, not what you wish it sounded like.
Strong, honest examples:
- Freelance UX Designer
- Independent Software Developer
- Marketing Consultant (Freelance)
- Data Analyst – Independent Project
- Product Manager – Side Project (Part-Time)
These titles work because they:
- Signal it’s not a traditional full-time role
- Still give a clear sense of responsibility
- Feel grounded and believable
A hiring manager reading “Freelance Data Analyst” for 18 months with solid bullets underneath thinks:
“This person has been doing real data work, just not inside one employer. That can still be valuable.”
Step 4: Describe Side Projects Like You Would Any Other Job (But With Context)
One of the best practices for turning side projects into credible experience is to describe them with the same structure you’d use for a full-time role:
- A clear title
- Company or project name
- Dates
- Brief context line
- Bullet points that highlight outcomes
The only twist: add just enough context so the reader understands the situation and scope.
Example 1 – Freelance role:
Freelance Web Developer – Self-Employed, Remote
2022 – Present
- Designed and developed 7+ responsive websites for small businesses in retail, coaching, and food services using React and WordPress.
- Improved average site load time by ~40% through image optimization, code splitting, and CDN configuration.
- Implemented basic SEO best practices, contributing to a 20–60% increase in organic traffic within 3 months for 3 clients (based on Google Analytics reports).
Why this works:
- The context is clear: freelance, self-employed.
- The work is quantified and specific.
- It demonstrates skills (React, WordPress, SEO) and business outcomes (traffic, performance).
Example 2 – Side project as product work:
Product Manager – Side Project: Habit Tracking App
2023 – 2024
- Led end-to-end product development of a cross-platform habit-tracking app used by ~300 monthly active users.
- Conducted 20+ user interviews and 3 usability test cycles to refine onboarding, increasing 7-day retention from 42% to 63%.
- Collaborated with a part-time developer and designer; maintained backlog, wrote user stories, and prioritized roadmap using data from Mixpanel and user feedback.
Why this works:
- It reads like a real product management role because it is one, even if unpaid.
- It shows understanding of metrics, research, collaboration, and iteration—the exact signals hiring managers look for.
Step 5: Focus on Outcomes, Not Just Activities
The biggest credibility booster on any resume—especially for freelance or side work—is to show impact, not just tasks.
Weak description:
- Built websites for small businesses
- Designed logos and branding
- Created social media content
Stronger, impact-focused description:
- Built and launched 5 small-business websites, leading to an average 25% increase in online inquiries for clients within three months of launch.
- Designed new visual identity for a local café, resulting in 30% more engagement on Instagram and improved brand consistency across digital and print assets.
- Created and scheduled weekly social content calendars that helped one coaching client grow their LinkedIn followers from 500 to 2,200 in six months.
Why this matters to the hiring manager:
I’m trying to predict: If I hire you, will you move the needle?
Numbers, before/after comparisons, and specific improvements help me see that you don’t just do work; your work changes something.
If you’re thinking, “But I don’t have exact numbers,” use:
- Approximations (with words like “about,” “roughly,” or ranges)
- Relative metrics (more, fewer, faster, higher)
- Process outcomes (shorter turnaround time, faster deployments, fewer revisions, better user satisfaction)
Step 6: Tame the Timeline – Be Honest, But Practical
Dates are where many people start to look “stretchy.” The goal is to be transparent but also realistic about how much of your time the work occupied.
Some best practices for how to list dates on side projects and freelance work:
-
If a project was truly short (e.g., 3 months), list the specific date range:
- “Mar 2023 – Jun 2023”
-
If you’ve been doing freelance work on and off for a while, use a broader range and clarify in the description:
- “2021 – Present”
- Then in a bullet: “Completed 10+ short-term contracts on a part-time basis while employed full-time.”
-
If it overlapped with full-time work, consider noting “part-time” or “concurrent with full-time role” to avoid confusion.
Example:
Marketing Consultant (Freelance) – Various Small Business Clients, Remote
2021 – Present (Part-time, concurrent with full-time role)
This reassures a hiring manager that you’re not double-counting full-time commitments or trying to inflate years of experience.
Step 7: Group Small Projects So You Don’t Look Scattered
If you’ve taken on many tiny gigs—logo designs, landing pages, one-off analytics dashboards—you don’t need a separate entry for each one. That can make you look unfocused.
Instead, use a grouped entry:
Freelance Graphic Designer – Self-Employed, Remote
2020 – Present
- Delivered 30+ branding and design projects for clients in coaching, e-commerce, and food service, typically within 1–3 week timelines.
- Created logo and brand guidelines for an online retailer, contributing to a 15% increase in email click-through rate after implementation across all marketing assets.
- Designed social media campaigns (static and Reels) that helped three clients grow Instagram engagement by 20–50% over three months.
You can then add a “Selected Projects” subsection under that role if you want to highlight one or two standout pieces with more detail.
Step 8: Match Your Projects to the Job You’re Applying For
From a hiring manager’s chair, I’m skimming your resume for relevance. I need to answer:
- “Can this person do the specific things I need done?”
- “Have they done something similar before—even if it was on the side?”
That means your side projects need to be selective and tailored, not just everything you’ve ever touched.
If you’re applying for a data analyst role:
- Prioritize analytics dashboards, ETL scripts, A/B testing, data cleaning projects.
- Downplay or remove less-related items like a photography site, unless it has a strong data component.
If you’re applying for a product management role:
- Highlight side projects where you did research, prioritization, roadmap planning, or metric tracking.
- Mention cross-functional collaboration, even if your “team” was a friend who coded and another who designed.
Tips for how to choose what to keep:
- Ask: Would I mention this story in an interview for this role?
- If no, it’s probably not worth the space.
- If yes, make sure it appears clearly and strongly on your resume.
Step 9: Align Language With Professional Standards
Another subtle way to make side projects feel credible is to describe them using the same language and frameworks used in industry.
Instead of:
- “Built a website for my friend’s DJ business.”
Try:
- “Designed and developed a responsive marketing site for a local DJ, including landing page copy, contact form integration, and mobile optimization, resulting in ~15 new booking inquiries per month.”
Instead of:
- “Followed a YouTube tutorial to build a finance app.”
Try:
- “Developed a personal finance tracking app using React and Firebase, implementing authentication, CRUD operations, and data visualization; used this project to deepen skills in modern front-end tooling and state management.”
You’re not hiding that you learned; you’re framing it in a way that highlights initiative, structure, and skill growth.
From a hiring manager view, I’m thinking:
“Does this person think and talk like someone in our field? Will they be able to slot into our workflows and communicate effectively?”
Professional language helps me say “yes.”
Step 10: Use Your Summary to Tie Everything Together
Your resume summary (or headline at the top) is a prime place to connect your side projects and freelance gigs to a cohesive narrative.
Instead of a generic summary:
“Hardworking professional looking for an opportunity to grow.”
Use a targeted one that integrates your side work:
“UX/UI designer with 3+ years of professional experience and a strong portfolio of freelance projects for small businesses. Specializes in user research, mobile-first design, and improving conversion rates for marketing sites and apps.”
or
“Junior data analyst transitioning from finance, leveraging hands-on projects in SQL, Python, and Tableau. Built dashboards and automation scripts for freelance clients and internal stakeholders, improving reporting speed and decision-making.”
Why this matters:
You’re answering the hiring manager’s quiet question:
“So… how do I interpret this mix of full-time roles and side projects?”
A strong summary pre-frames your background as a coherent, intentional path—not a random assortment of gigs.
Step 11: Be Ready to Back It Up in an Interview
One of the biggest tips for how to put side projects on your resume without looking like you’re stretching is simple: never write anything you can’t comfortably talk through in detail.
In an interview, a hiring manager might ask:
- “Tell me more about this freelance project—how did it start?”
- “How did you manage scope and expectations with your client?”
- “What challenges did you face and how did you handle them?”
- “If you had more time, what would you have improved?”
If your bullets are exaggerated or too vague, this is where cracks appear. But if they’re accurate and grounded, your side projects can become your strongest stories.
When your narrative matches your resume:
- You come across as trustworthy.
- Your side work feels even more legitimate.
- You can showcase autonomy, ownership, and learning agility—all things hiring managers love.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I list unpaid work or volunteer projects without sounding like I’m padding my resume?
Be clear about the nature of the work, but don’t minimize the value you created.
Example:
Volunteer Web Developer – Local Animal Shelter
2023 – Present
- Developed and maintains a volunteer sign-up portal used by 80+ active volunteers, reducing manual scheduling emails by ~60%.
You’re transparent (“Volunteer”) yet still highlighting real, measurable outcomes. Most hiring managers respect people who contribute skills to good causes; they don’t see it as padding if the work is real and relevant.
Can I put “Self-Employed” or “Freelance” as my company?
Yes—and this is often the best approach for how to present freelance work on a resume.
Use something like:
- Self-Employed, Remote
- Freelance, Various Clients
- Independent Consultant, City/Remote
What matters most is that the experience is organized and understandable. If you have a registered business name, you can use that, but it’s not necessary to be taken seriously.
What if my side projects failed or never “launched”?
Side projects don’t have to be commercial successes to be valuable. As long as you can demonstrate skills, process, and learning, they can still earn a place on your resume.
Example:
“Prototyped a task management web app using Next.js and PostgreSQL; conducted usability tests with 8 users and iterated based on feedback. Ultimately shelved the project but used it to deepen experience with full-stack development and user testing.”
Hiring managers know not every idea wins. What they care about is how you think, build, test, and reflect.
How many side projects should I include?
Focus on depth over volume. For most resumes, 1–3 well-described side projects or a single solid freelance entry with a few strong bullets is enough.
Ask yourself:
- Does this project add new evidence of a skill I want to highlight?
- Is it relevant to the role I’m applying for?
If the answer is no, leave it out. Quality and clarity beat sheer quantity.
Should I separate “Projects” and “Experience,” or merge them?
Either approach can work. The best practice for how to structure this is:
- If projects involved external stakeholders, constraints, and outcomes: they can live under Experience (with clear labels like “Freelance” or “Side Project”).
- If they’re more self-directed learning pieces: they can live under a Projects, Portfolio, or Selected Projects section.
When in doubt, think from the hiring manager’s perspective:
“Where would I expect to see this? What would make it easiest to understand quickly?”
Key Takeaways
- Side projects and freelance gigs are real experience as long as you’re honest about context and clear about outcomes.
- Use clear, grounded titles (e.g., “Freelance Developer,” “Independent Consultant”) to avoid sounding inflated or misleading.
- Describe side work with the same structure and rigor as full-time roles, emphasizing impact, not just activity.
- Tailor which projects you include to match the job you’re applying for, and use your summary to tie everything into a coherent story.
- Be ready to discuss your projects in depth—alignment between your resume and your interview stories is what truly sells your experience.
Ready to turn your side projects into a powerful, credible story that hiring managers take seriously?
Start shaping that story now—try Resume Monster for free and build a resume that does your real experience justice.