This post is part of a “continuing series”:http://thebogles.com/blog/category/jobster/innovation on growing a culture of innovation.

One of my favorite measures of prospective coworkers– after they’ve passed the minimal bars of fit and experience– is to
hear about hear about a project that they’ve worked on that wasn’t their job. It could be a pet project they’ve done on their own, or an open source project they contribute to, or even a charity they volunteer for.

With surprising frequency, it’s possible to predict they likelihood that they’ll get the job, and the likelihood that they’ll be an innovator, based on the way they describe the project and the things that they did. This accuracy is surprising because more traditional questions often fail to give accurate results in the limited space of an interview. Candidates are often well prepared for standard questions, even probing technical ones, so it’s easy to game the system.

Creating useful technical innovations requires a combination of technical insight and an understanding of customer and business needs– a broader view than is typically required if you’re just doing your job or doing what your told.

A project outside of work forces you take this broader view– you might be one part marketer, one part technical writer, one part tester, program manager and developer– and this broader view develops skills that are invaluable in creating innovation within the workplace.

Outside interests naturally also demonstrate a depth of commitment, passion, and entrepreneurial spirit beyond that required every day in the workplace.

A good side project can be offshoot of work, community of service, or even both. For instance, Mark Swardstrom is doing some great work to help the “Team in Training”:http://www.teamintraining.org/hm_tnt charity recruit volunteers using Jobster. The results of this work benefit not only a worthwhile charity but also Jobster, by adding useful features to the core product such as an events feature Mark added. Before he started at Jobster, Mark worked on a side project called “Poster”:http://www.mobmentality.com/, a simple but powerful website editor. Totally different projects, same underlying drive.

I could tell similar stories about each of the other members of the Jobster team, which is why coming to work each day is such fun.