Manager recommended I take on a project I'm not very passionate about. How can I handle the situation?

Don't try to overoptimize your time allocation on this one, especially if you think this new project won't deter from your main project. If it does, it's totally valid to bring up options to navigate this with your manager in a 1-1 and jointly problem solve.

From the manager POV, I've always been super grateful to those who stepped up when we were shorthanded. If you feel like your manager is a conscientious person overall, it will benefit you disproportionately in the medium-long term.

Personally, I'm always curious and deliberately try to get exposure to projects that I'm not directly on. It's a very useful muscle to build since I've unlocked many hidden opportunities through surfing other teams' projects in my spare time even at Director+ level.

On the one hand, you'll be able to gain trust from your manager and develop credibility with other stakeholders in your company if the business impact is high like your manager says. This can help with promotion and performance review in the future.

On the other hand, it can be difficult to juggle two projects at a time especially as someone who just started their engineering career. There will be a lot of context switching which will delay the deliverability schedule for both projects.

I would sit down with your manager and weigh the business impact of the two projects. You mention that you believe your current project has a lot of business impact, but the new project may not have as much business impact.

Can you find out why your manager believes the new project has such high business impact? Maybe they have some context that you don't have. At the end of the day, a lot of projects align to increasing revenue for the business, so you'll have to weigh that between the two projects.

You can also express your concerns that the new project might not align with your interests and career trajectory, but one quarter goes by quick, so you could set up an agreement to help out with this project for the next project to be more relevant to your interests afterwards. You just have to be firm with this in the future if they try to keep pushing down projects that don't align with your ultimate goals.

I would also set some expectations with your manager that this new project is going to take away resources from the current project. Ideally, you should wrap up your current project first before moving onto the next project.

Early in your career, your success is dictated more by your ability to complete your work and being a desirable person to work with. The outcome of the project is less important -- you can get promoted even if your work didn't have as much impact as expected. (The exception here is if there's a clear technical failure that led to the missed outcome, then you'd be on the hook.)

Given this, and the fact that it's only a 3 month part-time project, I'd recommend gritting your teeth and taking on the responsibility.

The other nuance here is to unpack why you are "not sure if this new project is the best thing to work on"?

• Do you have data to back this up?
• Are there clearly defined other projects that you could work on instead?
• Is this work that "has to get done", in which case someone else has to do it?

Without clear answers here, I'd just commit to doing the job. The trust you build with your manager will pay dividends later on.

Further resources:

• What to do when you don't believe in a new product you're assigned to?
• How to say no to a project to manager?