I never thought I would touch upon this aspect of my life on the blog. Simply because the blog is ‘the other me’.

A blog follower contacted me to ask ‘how’ I enjoy coding. The said person is studying programming and can’t seem to enjoy it after three years. Does it sound familiar to all the engineering students?

In my experience, it comes to you given some time. Didn’t we like the seventh class math better when we were in eighth class? Once we are done with it, we find it simple.

I enjoy developing software because it is solving some problem somewhere. Each day, I face a challenge and make my way through it. I leave for home after finding the solution. I feel victorious, triumphant, the king of the world… The queen, I meant.

It may not work for all. What if it just doesn’t feel right? I have known plenty of engineering lads who can’t wrap their heads around programming. The simple business of ‘writing if-then-else and for loops’ for some, is bizarre and unrelatable to others. Perhaps they should explore other aspects then? For instance, you can be a terrific web designer even if you stink at programming.

Or perhaps, if your soft skills are good, you can be a technical writer or explore the project management side. While you don’t necessarily need to be from technical background, being one would make a huge difference. More to the team than yourself. Take it from me because I know some highly incompetent ones, getting a salary only for blabbering away.

Worse case scenario would be that you forget about your degree and pursue some other career, something that you actually enjoy doing. That’s a bold step, but not impossible. Nothing is.

It will be better to do something you like rather than doing it out of compulsion and hating it every second. Why does that sound like a very familiar feeling, I wonder. Wink.

Happy (un) coding!

Shabana