Real Python - Python side projects & getting a job

Hey there,

Where do you find inspiration for Python side projects? It's a question I often hear from Pythonistas looking to build up a portfolio they can show to potential employers. So here's a random idea for you:

How about building a robot that keeps your plants alive?

Sounds crazy, but it's literally what I saw on the front page of Hacker News a while ago:

http://www.pleasetakecareofmyplant.com

This developer took a Raspberry Pi, attached a moisture sensor and a water pump to it, and built a contraption that waters a plant in his living room.

And it gets even better...

This (stationary) robot doesn't just mindlessly water his plant based on soil moisture measurements or a fixed schedule. No. Instead it posts the moisture readings to Reddit, where people can then vote on whether or not the system should water the plants that day.

It's not just a plant-watering robot—it's a global social experiment :)

What a cool little side project...when I browsed around on the project website I immediately wanted to know what technology it was built with—

And, guess what, the whole thing is written in Python: 

https://github.com/tylerjaywood/pleasetakecareofmyplant

Python is just perfect for projects like this, where you're "glueing" together a bunch of existing functionality and libraries to make something new and creative.

In fact, this whole project just oozes creativity, skill, and inspiration:

- It solves a "real world problem" (watering plants) with the creative use of several technologies: the Raspberry Pi, web development and web scraping, using the Reddit API etc.

- It's fun, it's playful, and it actually works. This reflects back on the author—who wouldn't want to have this guy on their team?

- It has great marketing: there's a website for the project and the social component built into it is simply a genius source of (free) attention.

Now, I'm not saying any of this was planned out as a way to grab attention from potential employers. Judging from the author's GitHub profile, he's working at AirBnB in San Francisco and already has an established career as a software developer. 

But I bet he'll be getting some very friendly emails from companies wanting to interview him over the next couple of days...

So, if you're thinking of side projects to work on with the intent of building up a portfolio you can use in your job applications, following this example wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

What I want to say here is this:

You don't have to write another ORM or implement an AVL tree from scratch to show off your Python skills (although it's great if you can)—a playful side project like this plant watering robot can help you stand out just as much or more.

Happy Pythoning!

— Dan Bader

Older messages

[Sublime + Python Setup] Sublime Text is just a blank canvas…

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Hey there, When I became serious about optimizing Sublime Text with plugins, it was hard for me to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without a real guideline or roadmap I resorted to installing *any*

[PythonistaCafe] Q&A

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Hey there, At this point you should have a pretty good idea of what PythonistaCafe is about and what makes it special. In this email I want to answer some common questions that I get asked about the

[Sublime + Python Setup] Grumpy old greybeard with a whitespace problem

Friday, December 18, 2020

One fateful day, the Agile Gods that be decided to “add some firepower” to my little team… And so, developer Paul joined (name changed to protect the guilty). Before I dive into this story, let me ask

[PythonistaCafe] What's in PythonistaCafe for you?

Friday, December 18, 2020

Hey there, A couple of years ago I'd become quite interested in martial arts. Hours upon hours of watching "The Karate Kid" growing up must've taken their toll on me... And so, I

[PythonistaCafe] Why PythonistaCafe exists

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Hey there, In one of my last emails I talked about how some online communities in the tech space devolve over time and turn into cesspools of negativity. This relates directly to how and why I started

You Might Also Like

Import AI 399: 1,000 samples to make a reasoning model; DeepSeek proliferation; Apple's self-driving car simulator

Friday, February 14, 2025

What came before the golem? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Defining Your Paranoia Level: Navigating Change Without the Overkill

Friday, February 14, 2025

We've all been there: trying to learn something new, only to find our old habits holding us back. We discussed today how our gut feelings about solving problems can sometimes be our own worst enemy

5 ways AI can help with taxes 🪄

Friday, February 14, 2025

Remotely control an iPhone; 💸 50+ early Presidents' Day deals -- ZDNET ZDNET Tech Today - US February 10, 2025 5 ways AI can help you with your taxes (and what not to use it for) 5 ways AI can help

Recurring Automations + Secret Updates

Friday, February 14, 2025

Smarter automations, better templates, and hidden updates to explore 👀 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

The First Provable AI-Proof Game: Introducing Butterfly Wings 4

Friday, February 14, 2025

Top Tech Content sent at Noon! Boost Your Article on HackerNoon for $159.99! Read this email in your browser How are you, @newsletterest1? undefined The Market Today #01 Instagram (Meta) 714.52 -0.32%

GCP Newsletter #437

Friday, February 14, 2025

Welcome to issue #437 February 10th, 2025 News BigQuery Cloud Marketplace Official Blog Partners BigQuery datasets now available on Google Cloud Marketplace - Google Cloud Marketplace now offers

Charted | The 1%'s Share of U.S. Wealth Over Time (1989-2024) 💰

Friday, February 14, 2025

Discover how the share of US wealth held by the top 1% has evolved from 1989 to 2024 in this infographic. View Online | Subscribe | Download Our App Download our app to see thousands of new charts from

The Great Social Media Diaspora & Tapestry is here

Friday, February 14, 2025

Apple introduces new app called 'Apple Invites', The Iconfactory launches Tapestry, beyond the traditional portfolio, and more in this week's issue of Creativerly. Creativerly The Great

Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1689 [Medium]

Friday, February 14, 2025

Daily Coding Problem Good morning! Here's your coding interview problem for today. This problem was asked by Google. Given a linked list, sort it in O(n log n) time and constant space. For example,

📧 Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR

Friday, February 14, 2025

​ Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR Read on: m​y website / Read time: 4 minutes The .NET Weekly is brought to you by: Step right up to the Generative AI Use Cases Repository! See how MongoDB powers your