Personal projects are a great way to kick start your personal brand.
Have you ever felt this way?
Ji Lee is a Creative Director at Google Creative Labs. After 4 years in a past job, he felt stifled and frustrated by the lack of progress until he finally realized what his problem was: other people were holding him back. So he decided to take a risk by leaving and doing something different- a work project for his own professional curiosity and experimentation, that he funded and was completely responsible for its successes and failures.
The result?
The Bubble Project was wildly successful and went viral. (You know something is good when the people it mocks start to use it themselves.)
More importantly, his personal project created a buzz around him, opening up all sorts of job opportunities for him like never before and ultimately he did find a job where he no longer felt stifled and frustrated.
Here’s an 8-minute clip of him telling his inspiring and entertaining story, with lessons learned towards the end:
What about you?
Have you tried using personal projects to advance your brand and career? Tell us your success and/or failure story in the comments here below.
Thanks to Tina of swissmiss for bringing Ji Lee’s story to my attention.
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
