Personal Projects
Ever since I got into learning how to design and develop for the web, I’ve always tried to do small little [personal] projects outside of class that I could be proud of. Nothing too huge, but something that I, and possibly my friends could appreciate. It’s been awhile since I’ve actually worked on a personal project, because now I feel like it would be on a bigger scale, so more planning and time would be needed.
Every day I try to take a few minutes to think what could be beneficial to me or someone that I know. I’d like to take on some kind of a personal project that would keep my design and development skills touched up over time. This would be a long term project, so it’s not something that I would just want to dive into to get done in a rush.
For some reason, I feel that having a personal project, outside of the normal client work, holds some type of importance to me, and I wonder if others try and take on personal projects to get away from the normal, and sometimes stressful, client work. Now of course this doesn’t really have to be limited to web work, but since this is my life and passion, I really can’t see a personal project being in any other form.
For the past few months I’ve been working (with two other colleagues) on starting my own company, but I don’t think I would count that as a personal project, since that is what I’d like my full-time job to be one day.
So, though I don’t have a project for myself, it is something that I often think about because I think it would be beneficial to myself. Do you think having personal projects is important throughout a career path like design?
7 Comments
I have one true personal project, which is my ever-evolving blog. I spend a fair lot of free time either working on it, or at least thinking about ways to improve it.
Other than that I’ve begun writing a lot, but thats for financial gain, so im not sure whether it should be considered ‘personal’.
To answer you question I do believe personal projects are important to career progressment. In fact I couldnt think of much else more so.
For some reason, I never thought of my own blog as a personal project, although it’s just that. My other blog I try to get a little more creative with for ideas.
But that isn’t enough for me! Maybe I’m just trying/wanting to do too much!
I know exactly how that feels!
You know, I’ve always wondered how Comp-Sci and Design students could ever hope to succeed in the real world without having the passion to engage in “side” projects. For people in a technology field, it’s imperative to always be improving your skills - which is something you can so infrequently do under an employer’s time. What’s left? Your own!
I get most of my design training and contract work from working on my own blog, so its definitely one of my big projects. Just pick something that itches and go after it!
(Man, Firefox on this little old minimac is having a heckuva time rendering your site without making the machine crawl)
Jordan, sorry about the rendering problem. I haven’t been able to test out this site on as many machines/browsers as I would have liked.
Passion seems to be big deal in our field. I can’t say that I’ve talked to many people in other fields that were as passionate as designers.
Congratulations on making it into 9rules. You have a nice site, here, easy to read, and nice layout.
I have been a member since Round 4.
Thanks Lorri! Much appreciated. I will get back to my regular writing after the holidays, it tends to be a busy time!