The Software Engineer’s Guide to Evaluating Work

Am I working on meaningful projects? What defines a “good” project? How do I choose the right one if I have the opportunity?

If these questions resonate with you, you’re not alone. As engineers, especially early in our careers, we often grapple with these dilemmas. The answers aren’t always clear-cut.

Too often, workplace dynamics or external recognition shape our decisions more than a thoughtful evaluation of the work itself.

• Your manager says you’re a star performer.
• You receive regular recognition and accolades.
• Your work gets great visibility within the organisation.

These factors might lead you to believe you’re doing meaningful work. But is that truly the case?

Great leaders and managers can make you feel good about your work, even when the work doesn’t serve your long-term goals. On the other hand, you might feel your work isn’t meaningful, even though it adds significantly to your skillset.

So how do you objectively evaluate your work? How do you decide whether your current role aligns with your career ambitions? In this blog, I’ll share my insights for evaluating projects, categorising their value, and aligning them with your goals.

Classifying Projects

When evaluating your work, I’ve found it helpful to categorize projects into three distinct buckets.

1. Projects That Are Great for Business

These are projects critical for organisational success, often bringing high visibility and accolades.

Imagine you streamline a manual process consuming significant team bandwidth by integrating with an internal tool. The results?

• You save countless hours of manual effort.
• You become the go-to expert for tool integration across teams.
• Your efforts visibly benefit your team and organisation.

Sounds amazing, right? But pause and reflect:

• Did you gain new technical skills or learn a novel framework?
• Was the work technically challenging, or was it something you’ve done multiple times before?
• If asked to highlight this on your resume, would it impress a recruiter outside your current organisation?

You might realise that while this project is vital for your current company, it adds limited long-term value to your career. However, projects like these are still important investments, especially if you’re staying long-term — they reinforce your organizational relevance and solidify your reputation.

2. Projects That Are Great for Your Skillset

These are the projects that truly challenge you — pushing you to expand your technical expertise and build what I like to call “skills you can take along.”

Imagine this:

• You tackle a complex problem where the ideal solution requires learning a new technology or framework from scratch.
• You optimise an existing solution, uncovering nuances in familiar technologies that you hadn’t explored before.
• You enhance a system’s robustness or scalability by designing a novel algorithm or implementing a significant architectural change.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? And it often is. These projects are rarely straightforward. Management might give you vague directives like, “We need to scale this solution” or “Can we lower its COGS (cost of goods sold)?” — but without a clear action plan. As a result, these projects can face hesitation, get deprioritized, or be relegated to backlog as ambiguous “POC TODOs.”

This is where you, as an engineer, can step in. Be proactive:

• Advocate for prioritising these projects within your team.
• If that’s not possible, carve out time for them as a side project or during hackathons.

While these efforts often involve “dirty work” and may lack immediate recognition, they are transformative for your personal growth. Here’s why:

• They equip you with new, transferable technical expertise that stays relevant throughout your career.
• They create standout experiences that impress recruiters and become compelling stories in interviews.
• They showcase your adaptability, initiative, and problem-solving abilities to future employers.

Investing in these projects is an investment in yourself. The knowledge and skills you gain don’t just solve today’s problems — they lay the groundwork for opportunities you’ll encounter years down the line.

3. The Ideal Combo: Projects That Offer Both

Yes, these projects exist — the rare gems that combine skill-building opportunities with significant recognition.

Take, for example, a project I worked on: building an auto-retraining framework for a model deployment platform. It checked all the boxes:

• Skill-building: I learned the entire machine learning lifecycle, diving into concepts like cross-validation and grid search, which deepened my domain expertise in the field.
• New technology: I picked up Scala to leverage its robust APIs for implementation.
• Complex design: I tackled significant design challenges, having to create a reusable solution.
• Business Impact: The framework automated a labor-intensive process, eliminating the need for manual retraining, reevaluating, and redeploying models every 3–6 months. This not only saved countless hours but also significantly boosted productivity.

Projects like these are rare, and it’s unrealistic to expect every project to tick all the boxes. But when you encounter one, recognise its potential and seize it. Dedicate yourself to maximizing both your learning and the value it delivers.

Making Strategic Choices

Once you’ve classified your projects, the next step is aligning them with your goals. Where you are in your career — and where you want to go — should shape your priorities.

Let’s set aside the third category for now. These “ideal combo” projects are no-brainers; you should pursue them whenever they come your way. Instead, focus on striking a balance between the first two categories based on your plans.

• If you’re staying long-term, prioritise business-critical projects to solidify your value within the organisation. However, still ensure that at least 30% of your time is dedicated to skill-building projects that enhance your resume. This helps you stay sharp and keeps your profile relevant for future opportunities.
• If you’re planning to move soon, focus on resume-building projects that demonstrate your technical expertise and adaptability. At the same time, minimize time spent on internal tools or projects with limited relevance outside your current organization.
• If you’re not finding skill-building projects over a considerable period — even if you enjoy great visibility in the organization — it might be time to re-evaluate your role and consider a switch.
• If you’re balancing both types of projects but feel undervalued, it could be a matter of recognition. In such cases, discussing your concerns with your manager may be more effective than considering a move.

Personally, I’ve found it helpful to strike a balance throughout the year. I focus on business-critical projects in the first half to deliver immediate value and then shift to skill-building initiatives in the latter half to invest in long-term growth.

Final Thoughts

Evaluating the quality of your work is an essential skill that can significantly influence your career trajectory. By categorising your projects and strategically choosing where to invest your time and energy, you can make informed decisions that align with your aspirations.

Remember:

• High visibility doesn’t always equate to long term growth. It’s essential to dig deeper and assess.
• Projects that seem less glamorous now can yield significant dividends in the future. Embrace these opportunities — they form the foundation of your expertise.
• Projects that balance business impact and personal growth are rare treasures — when you find them, seize them.

Ultimately, your career is a sum of the projects you say yes to. You won’t always have a choice — but when you do, choose intentionally. Learn to see beyond applause. Invest in your growth. And remember: meaningful work isn’t always the loudest — but it’s always the most lasting.