The Power of Side Projects

Sometimes it can feel like you're not growing in your profession, or you feel stuck, not knowing what to do, or you might not get opportunities in areas you're interested in. And I have been there too and have felt that many times—that's where side projects have played a major role to unlock the block, bring newness to the work, and most importantly keep learning and growing.

As the year ends, I realized I published quite a lot of good things: Prototyping with SwiftUI course, Figma course, and landing design job book. I feel proud about it and got love from the design community. While it held me back to put myself out there, those projects unlocked valuable insights and learnings for me.

When you work on side projects, you're opening worlds that you were not familiar with, and that can feel scary but also exciting. My side projects have helped me be good at what I do. Spending 3 months building a Figma course helped me explore Advanced Figma concepts, which helped me build local design systems at work. Learning SwiftUI helped me reduce the idea-to-implementation execution gap.

Everyone has different goals and motivations when it comes to career growth—it could be love for the craft or strictly financial, and nothing is wrong with either of them as everyone has different situations they are in. Whatever the side project, it can open up opportunities for you. They also help you build authority in a subject if you have published a book or course in that space, and this can be a great career booster for you.

Sometimes when you're learning a new skill, it can feel like you're not going anywhere with countless tutorials one after the other, not feeling there is any tangible output. That's where, after learning the foundations, applying them to a project can feel rewarding—something that you can put out in the world that you feel proud of and can also be a great addition to your portfolio.

Being relevant in this ever-changing tech world is quite important, and side projects can be a great way to apply what you learn and keep yourself updated.

This year, I also decided to focus on design and code and spend a good amount of time learning SwiftUI (a framework by Apple to design and develop apps for Apple platforms). So lately, I'm working on building my first app, Design Quest—another side project that I'm excited to design and build.

So if you're curious about something or want to learn a skill, start a side project. You will learn more than from any degree.

Side projects also help you gain clarity on what you want to pursue and what you don't like to do. That awareness goes a long way in deciding your next steps and focus.

Thank you for reading!