After 8 years of absence from professional software development i decided to finally get back into coding. At least after work. So, if you are a former software developer, this video is for you. I think it is about time to get “back” into coding. Today, i want to share three key learnings, which made me getting back, and more importantly enjoying software development again. So, stay with me, there might be a lesson to be learned 😉
Hi, my Name is Adam and on this channel i will be sharing my experience from almost two decades in the Gaming, Entertainment and the Tech-Industry. This is a new channel, so please consider saying hi in the comments. Finally, before any question come up… yes, my accent is a weird mutation of German and polish, enjoy ;).
For sure, everyone has their own reasons, why they might have stopped creating things. Maybe you were tired, overwhelmed or just climbed the corporate ladder. Here, I would like to tell my story, why a started Software Development more than twenty years ago, why i stopped and why i am back! Hopefully with that, I can inspire some of you, to give it another try!
As a kid i loved plying video games, i mean… which kid did not. Someday… it was clear to me, i was fascinated by watching developer diaries from people like John Carmack or John Romero, the creators of Quake and Doom. Even earlier it blew my mind that my uncle had a special physical plugin for his commodore c64, with which he could change the sprites of the characters in the games. He literally could alter the worlds he was playing in. This moment had a huge impact on me and my career. While i cannot tell that i just picked up my Amiga A500 and started developing, it was not before high school and university until i really started programming. But still, I had the clear goal in mind, to get into the gaming industry. Long story short, i made it and started as a Software Engineer for an EA Studio in Germany. A couple years passed and even though, i was finally working in my dream industry, i started loosing joy in software engineering. It was for two reasons:
Working in Software Development you are constantly facing new problems you need to solve. Some easy ones, but a lot of really hard and challenging ones. I felt like burning out from my self-induced pressure to solve them all in record times. Of course, project pressure came on top of that, but i cannot tell that within our Studio the Developers suffered from “bad managers behavior”. So it was mainly me, who was drained by the complexity of topics i worked on.
Then, secondly, i need to tell, and i feel that it kind of became a buzzword nowadays, i felt a strong sense of Imposter Syndrome. When doing pair programming I always felt like the other developer always grasped the concept, the solution to a problem much quicker than i did. I´ve always felt that my solutions were not as elegant as solutions presented by others. Here i could dive into the topic of over-engineering, but for now lets put that discussion aside. What matters is, that i felt like a fraud.
Over time, I, more and more felt that my skills were not evolving… now i know, it might not be mainly just on me, but that’s again another story.
So, feeling like a fraud, having no visible progress on my skills, i decided to shift my career to a more people centric role within Project Management. For those of you familiar with software development practices, I went full steam ahead into Scrum Mastery and Agile Coaching. And there I found a lot of positive feedback, My personality seemed to support that role as people described me as a good communicator who is able to build empathy towards people. Having that change done, my career was on track. I have found the thing i was good at and i had the chance to learn A lot while working in Consulting. I worked with huge companies, such as the Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen or as of now, Sennheiser, an audio equipment manufacturer specializing on professional audio markets.
Even though i love what i do, the visible progress as Agile Coach, working in Team- or Business Transformation is very limited. Change takes time. Most of the time you have to be very patient until changes take effect and become visible.
So, I i am in kind of the desperate need of experiencing a more immediate sense of accomplishment.
What i needed to learn, was, that no matter what you do, you always will be confronted with problems you need to solve. Maybe more direct and visible in coding, but in working with people, there are a lot of problems to be solved as well. Remember me saying i was tired of constantly solving problems? Well, here i am. Still trying to solve problems, but this time around much MORE complex und subtle people-problems, where there is never an easy fix to a situation. There might be project-management slash agile guidelines but you cant fix people! While i am fascinated by that, i learned, that by changing my role i didn’t escape “problems” at all. I still do have the problem-part, but without the solving-the-problem part. Now, i realize, that in software-development it might be not easy, but at least there is a fix, a workaround out there… a more immediate sense of making something work.
And that’s why coding got back into the picture.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to just give it another try and installed Visual Studio Code and React Native Expo. A Typescript Framework for multi-platform App-Development. I need to say, that i have never really worked with JavaScript or typescript. because I used to be a Java or C# guy. Deciding for a new tech-stack i was prepared for a steep learning curve.
And that’s where my second lesson was to be made. It is called AI. Honestly speaking, I was kinda prepared to set up my development environment and quickly lose interest again, as soon as i would hit the wall of that learning curve. But it never came! I realized that nowadays, it is easier than ever to pick up a new tech-stack and start working with it. As long as you know some basic programming concepts, AI is the mentor at your side to support in tricky questions. It made my entry into React-Native with Expo super smooth and a fun experience. It almost feels like cheating! But well, AI is here to stay. So, if you you feel like your skills are rusty, fear no more. In 2025, it is super easy to get back into coding.
Sure, as my little experimental App got more complex, AI cant support that well anymore, so there are still some nasty challenges which need time and “REAL DEV WORK” to be done. But after eight years of people coaching i learned another valuable, maybe the most valuable lesson of all. It is the attitude which makes the difference. In the past i used to be stuck in a “fixed-mindset”. Every new learning, every challenge, i perceived as a personal attack, something i didnt want to face. After eight years of helping others and helping myself, i now know that there is another way. And thats achieved by a growth mindset. With every challenge you face, there is opportunity for personal development. And this is great! You can grow every day, learn new things. With this attitude, it is much easier to face yet another problem, as you know, that you will come a better developer out of that. It is so powerful, that it even fixed my “Imposter syndrome”. It is not about what you pretend to be or not to be, how good you are or not, it is about the willingness to constantly learn new things. As long as you follow that simple principle, you are on the safe side and never need to fear the Imposter Syndrome again.
The bottom line is: After adding a side project as addition to my day-job, i started seeing a positive impact on my self-esteem, which ultimately lead to being much more balanced. I am a firm believer that doing creative things enrich the happiness of us human beings and after a lot of “just-talking”-meetings, everyone should pick up something creative. For me it is “Building Things”. Welcome to my channel and see you soon!
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