Feeling Stuck in Your Tech Career? Here’s How a Pet Project Can Revive Your Growth

You are technically leading a team successfully. You go to the office daily. Attend meetings. Take status updates. (Some times) Gather new requirements from clients or product managers. The project is stable. The team is satisfied. The client is pleased. The company is happy.

But..... are YOU satisfied? Are YOU happy?

If your answer is a resounding yes, you don’t need this article. Feel free to head back to The True Code and check out something else 🙂.

But for me, years ago, the answer was a clear no. My job was smooth—no pressure, no chaos—yet something felt off. There was nothing new to learn, the product was stable, and the sense of achievement was missing. Over time, that emptiness morphed into a quiet but persistent anxiety.

That’s when I realized—I had to take action. Simply switching jobs wasn’t the solution. There was no guarantee that my next project would offer real learning opportunities. That thought hit me hard—why should my growth depend on a company or a project?

Enter Pet Project!

I started thinking—rather than waiting for the right project to come along, why not create one myself? Even if it was small, it didn’t matter. I was mainly in the .NET domain, so thought of developing a .NET application. I began exploring the type of application I should develop. A discovery process began, and that itself turned out to be a deeply engaging experience. Every day—thinking, pondering, contemplating… What should I create?

Around that time, OTT platforms were booming. So, I decided to build a .NET-based aggregator web application. A web application that would let users browse movies and series from Netflix, Hotstar, and Prime Video, with filters for OTT platform, genre, release date, and more. Front-end development was never my forte. Though I could work with existing HTML, creating a new one from scratch—with CSS and styling—was a different ballgame altogether. Wish ChatGPT was around back then 🙂.

My idea was simply to create a single page that would display the content with all the filters built right in. I searched online for design ideas and found some that fit my needs. To clarify, I’m talking about designs, not HTML layouts.

Now that I had the designs, the question was—how do I create the HTML? Once again, I found myself contemplating, researching, and figuring out how to develop the actual HTML. I then discovered a former junior colleague who was open to creating the HTML in exchange for some extra money. I paid ₹8,000 for three pages: Login (though unplanned, I included it, anticipating future use), Main, and About. I know ₹8,000 seems a bit high, but at that time, I was so excited that I didn’t hesitate to pay. In a way, it wasn’t just spending money—it was an investment in expanding my skills. The quality of the HTMLs he delivered exceeded my expectations. When he submitted them to me, my enthusiasm reached an all-time high!

I took those HTMLs and began developing the application. Balancing this with my job wasn’t easy, but believe me, I was truly enjoying it at the time. It didn’t feel like a burden or extra work at all. Throughout the day, I couldn't wait to get back home and dive into my application.

Finally, the day arrived when my application development was complete. But...it was only running on my local machine. And just like that, a new desire was born! I wanted to share it with someone, to let them see what I had built. And for that, it had to be deployed and made accessible on a real domain. And so began the hunt for a cloud hosting provider. And once again, I found myself deep in contemplation, research, and endless thoughts.

Now, pause for a moment. And just think. What was I really doing? Where was the learning? Was I merely developing an application? No! Look closer, and you’ll see—I wasn’t just developing an application. I was on a journey of learning!

Discovering what to create. Choosing the right design. Figuring out how to develop the HTML. Bringing it to life through development. Deciding on the database. Selecting a cloud provider. Learning how to deploy it. Understanding how to purchase and configure a custom domain. Setting up SSL for security. Tracking user activity. Finding the right tools for analytics. And so much more.

A pet project isn’t just about working on a single task. A pet project brings countless learnings—which you won’t even anticipate at the start. When I started, there was just one thing on my mind—develop an application. But as I embarked on this journey, I ended up learning so much more than I had ever anticipated—it truly took me by surprise! And the cherry on top? My anxiety was gone!

So, if you're feeling stuck and waiting for your company to provide learning opportunities, you're setting the wrong expectations. This isn’t your company’s responsibility—it’s yours!

Find me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurav-sharma-unfiltered