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At its core, engineering is an act of creativity. That's why many of us decide to become engineers: we love building things.
But especially if you work in the private sector, it's easy to forget that passion for growth as you climb 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 creating something new.
That's why I often recommend that weary engineers do something very simple: start a side project. After 15 years of working at various tech companies and businesses, this has been the easiest, most underrated, and powerful way to get your passion back at work.
Besides reigniting your passion for creativity, side projects have many other benefits. Side projects allow us to explore new technologies or problem areas. We can embrace new ideas that our companies may be hesitant to embrace. And you don't have to get support from a manager or explain the business case. Start using technology simply because you want to learn about it.
When you create something through a side project, your depth of understanding is much greater than just following a tutorial or reading about it. I can attribute many of my career opportunities to projects I created and published outside of my day job. Some of these projects, like my career development platform Taro, even turn into companies!
We've entered a golden age of side projects because they've become much more accessible. Compared to ten years ago, it is now much easier to explore, create and deploy your creation. Even compared to two years ago, you're much less likely to spend hours struggling down 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 creating them has become easier than ever. It's time to build a portfolio of side projects.
—Rahul
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