I'm a developer, and I have an app, but its main focus is weed. Marijuana is illegal in my state (NY, U.S.) The app does nothing illegal, it's closer to a database app, but the database centers around marijuana.
Is there any problem putting something like this on my resume or in my portfolio? If the work is good, will the content have a negative effect on employers? Can employers reject me from a job based on a project like this?
Consider what this app says about you.
Good:
Bad:
Note that all of the negative points can be avoided by simply reskinning your app to be a database about something else.
If you created something which centers around a subject which is not accepted by mainstream society, either for personal satisfaction or to fulfill the needs of a niche subculture, you certainly don't want it associated with your professional identity. So release it under a pseudonym and follow rules 1 and 2 of the fight club while not acting under that pseudonym.
Let's cut to the chase
Can employers reject me from a job based on a project like this?
Yes they can. Providing database services for marijuana users is not a protected category, and if employers want to reject you based on that information then can without legal problems.
Whether they will or not is something we can't answer. A substantial number of people are strongly opposed to marijuana and would not want to be associated with it. Some fraction of them might reject you just on the association. Some will suspect that you are an illegal marijuana user, or an addict. Recruiters are generally conservative, in that the problems caused by having an employee who turns out to be a 'pothead' and who gets himself arrested are likely more significant than the benefits of any particular employee.
Against that there may be some that see your app and/or marijuana use in a positive light. It's really your judgement as to whether the former are likely to outnumber the latter in places you will be applying to. In a country with the largest number of people incarcerated for drug offences in the world my bet would be that they do.
Of course you may decide that the sort of people who would object to your work are not the ones you want to work for. That is entirely up to you.
This is a very hard question, since it depends so much on the interviewer/recruiter. But I think you should look at it like this.
You've made an app for a specific market - regardless of your own opinion of the subject. That market is illegal, but are moving towards being legal. Marijuana is a sensible topic since some people have a very colored view on people who consume/sell/buy or even talk about marijuana.
You might come in a situation where your recruiter doesn't support that you've made an app for this market, but you might also come across another recruiter who is a supporter - it can go either way.
So here is what I feel is the right thing to do:
Threat this in a very professional matter, acknowledge that there is a medical market as well as an legal market other places in the world, and that you simple made an app for this market. I Assume that this app might be available in various app markets, is that true? If so, I don't recommend lying about it, by re-skinning the app, since it might come back to you in the future.
Full disclosure can help you find a place to work, who acknowledge the way you think, and who you are. Which might be important to you, or might not. But if you tell this doing the interview, you don't have to worry about it afterwards, which you might do, if the app can be traced back to you somehow. Either way, I feel that you should try to sell yourself for who you are, and the quality you posses in an interview.
So my advice is this:
Put it on your portfolio, but threat it in a professional matter. Talk numbers in terms of amounts of downloads, daily users and so on.
