A side project reads as real, credible work when the entry gives a reader the same four things a job entry gives them: what the project does, what you built it with, what your role in it was, and what changed or worked because of it. A single line with just a repository name, or the words "personal project" next to a title, reads as a hobby mention, because it gives nobody anything to evaluate. The fix is not to write more about the project, it is to write the same four things you would write for a paid role, just scaled to the size of the project.
What separates a side project from a hobby mention
A hobby mention names a thing: a title, maybe a link, nothing else. A credible entry describes a thing: what it does for a user, what stack or tools built it, and what you did specifically, which matters most on a team project where more than one name is attached to the same repository. Scope carries weight too. "A tool that automates a manual reconciliation step" or "a service that handles requests from a browser extension" tells a reader more in one clause than a clever project name ever will on its own, and it does so without needing an official metric to back it up.
Structure each entry the way you would a job
Treat a project entry like a compressed job entry: one line for what it is and who it is for, one line for the stack, and one line, at most two, for your specific contribution and its scope. Leave out setup instructions, badges, and anything that reads like the project's own README rather than a CV line. A recruiter or hiring manager skims a CV in seconds, and a project entry competes for that same sliver of attention as a job entry, so it earns the same discipline: lead with the outcome, not the tooling.
Where side projects belong on the CV
Where a project entry lives depends on whether it grew out of a job or stands entirely on its own. A template like the Developer template prints a project underneath the work entry it belongs to, so a side project built during a role, on your own time but adjacent to that job's actual work, can sit attached to that entry instead of floating separately with no context. A project with no job attached to it at all usually reads better grouped in its own short, clearly labelled section near the bottom of the CV, kept apart from the work history, so it reads as a deliberate addition rather than an afterthought pasted under the last job you held.
Illustrative example: from a repo link to a project entry
Vague: "invoice-tool, github.com/example/invoice-tool"
Specific: "Invoice reconciliation tool - built a script that matched bank statement lines against invoice records and flagged mismatches automatically. Built with Python and a small SQLite database. Replaced a manual weekly reconciliation task with a single automated run a teammate could trigger."
The second version answers what the project does, what it was built with, and what changed because of it, without inventing a number or a result the first version could never have supported honestly. If a project genuinely has no measurable before-and-after, describing the scope of the problem it solved does the same job.
A few mistakes that undo the effort
Listing every side project you have ever started, rather than the two or three that best support the role you want, dilutes the strong ones and pushes a reader's attention away from the entries that matter most. Describing a project only by its tech stack, with no sentence about what it actually does, leaves a reader guessing at its purpose entirely. And crediting yourself for a team project without naming your specific part in it reads as overclaiming the moment anyone asks a follow-up question about it. The general structure and section order covered in how to write a resume applies to a projects section just as much as it applies to a job entry.
Add it to your CV
A well-described side project can do real work for a CV, especially early in a career when paid experience is still thin. Start from a template built for engineering work and drop your project entries straight into a document you can keep refining.