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At its core, engineering is an act of creation. This is why many of us chose to become engineers: We love to build things.
But especially if you have a private sector job, it’s easy to forget that passion to build as you climb up the corporate ladder. Somewhere between quarterly planning meetings and incident retrospectives, we often lose the joy of creation in our corporate jobs. Large companies require a level of bureaucracy and specialization that is often at odds with building something new.
That’s why I frequently recommend burned-out engineers to do something very simple: Start a side project. During 15 years working across various tech stacks and companies, this has been the most straightforward, underrated, and powerful way to regain my excitement at work.
Beyond rekindling a passion for creation, side projects have many other benefits. Side projects let us explore new technologies or problem spaces. We can leverage newer ideas that our companies may be hesitant to adopt. And you don’t need to get buy-in from a manager or explain the business justification. Start using a technology simply because you want to learn about it.
When you build something through a side project, your depth of understanding is far greater than just following a tutorial or reading about it. I can attribute many of my career opportunities to the projects I’ve built and published outside of my day job. Some of these projects, like my career growth platform Taro, even turn into companies!
We’ve entered the golden age for side projects because they’re so much more accessible. Compared to a decade ago, it’s significantly easier to research, build, and deploy your creation. Even compared to two years ago, you’re much less likely now to waste hours wrestling with some configuration rabbit hole. Just ask ChatGPT or Gemini for help!
The benefits of a personal project are real: passion, learning, career growth, and fun. And they’re easier than ever to create. Now’s the time to create your side project portfolio.
—Rahul
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