How Coding Found Its Way Back To Me
I remember sitting in my college counselor’s office going over my future major plans after receiving an email from the school of engineering stating that I no longer would be able to continue my computer gaming design major. Long story short, I failed and dropped out of one or two computer science classes. For the first time in a long time, I had failed at an academic endeavor. I had spent the majority of my higher education gearing towards this field and now it was game over.

At the time, it felt absolutely devastating that I never would achieve what I set out to do but it felt liberating knowing that I wouldn’t have to spend countless hours going over topics like assembly programming or deciphering algorithms in an academic setting. Programming became something I no longer wanted to do as it reminded me of how much of a failure I was.
Deep down I knew I could’ve done more like actually get the help I needed or made more school friends to help support me instead of going about things solo. Pride and a lot of excuses did me in. It was my full responsibility to ensure I did everything to ensure my success and I took the easy route and gave up.
Luckily, I switched to my fallback major without much hassle or delay and graduated on time with a BA in Film and Digital Media. Coding was no longer a thought post-graduation.
Playing It Safe
Like many students post-graduation, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do even though I had a film degree. Getting a job in the film industry seemed daunting and I had no idea where to start so I played it safe and got a full time job at a photo manufacturing lab as an invoicing technician.
The job I had signed on for was the complete opposite of what I had in my mind. I thought I’d be editing cool photos in Photoshop doing graphic design work but instead would be processing thousands of photo lab orders checking addresses, endless amounts of price codes, payment methods, and anything post-production related. Absolutely exciting work indeed…
Although the work processes were repetitive and at times really annoying, I graciously took on the challenges of it and pushed forward with doing the absolute best I could do as that has always been my work ethic. For me I strive to always give 110% effort and choose to do unexpectedly great things for others.
I made it my mission to master the business software and became a beast at invoicing orders using only a keyboard. Although it wasn’t quite programming in a sense, mastery of invoicing orders required a great understanding of the ins and outs of multiple software systems and a helluva lot of practice.
As a result of my performance, I moved to higher positions fairly quickly within a few months and had achieved a sense of autonomy over my work. It was at this point where I asked myself:
“What can I do to take my job to the next level? Is there something else I can do to add more value?”
The Drive To Code
The one thing that drove me nuts about the software we were using was how poorly designed it was for the user. Many tasks required an insane amount of manual processes like: changing printer settings required 17 steps, putting an order on hold — 10 steps, copying/pasting from a template document to orders’ notes, and the list goes on and on. WHY ON EARTH WAS THIS DESIGNED LIKE THIS?! This is soooooooo inefficient… it screams of the need for more automation!!!

In my mind I couldn’t help but think “Man, I could do a better job with how this app works and make it more user friendly. I might not be able to modify the software itself but maybe I could program some automation on the front-end with keystrokes.”
At this moment, I was presented with an opportunity for me to potentially solve or at the very least make things just a little bit better. My research led me to the AutoHotkey scripting language which I had never heard of before but provided powerful functionality that could manipulate the Windows operating system in ways I never thought possible.
Suddenly, the dormant coding skills I had gained previously began to awaken and call out to me.
I had identified a problem area, found a potential solution, and now it was game time to see if I could actually make my idea come to life. Part of me didn’t want to go through with this because I knew I would have to go through the drudgery and pain of learning a new programming language however… this was different.
Unlike my college days, this time I had a purpose — to provide a way to streamline my job allowing my team to do their work better and in the end benefit the company and its customers. Keeping this in mind helped drive me towards what I wanted to achieve.
I spent the next month deep diving into YouTube tutorials and combing through the documentation experimenting with what I could do with AutoHotkey. As expected, there were a lot of WTF moments and head banging trying to get things to work properly.
Although I didn’t have the order management software at home, I sent myself screenshots and worked off those to simulate what I intended the program to do: click here at X coordinate, press these keystrokes together, display this GUI prompt box, bring this window to the front, and other countless cool functions. It was a humongous amount to take in but a lot of fun to try things out.
Eureka! It Works!
After much experimentation and having a good grasp of AHK, I wrote a simple macro script to change the arduous 17-step printer settings task and decided to try it out at work.
With much nervousness and anticipation, I pressed the hotkey and BAM!!! The mouse/keystroke combinations fired off in succession accomplishing the multi-step process in one fell swoop. Seventeen steps down to one! Yessssssss! Mission accomplished! I pumped my fists in the air and felt on top of the world knowing I successfully used my coding skills for the first time in a real world setting.
The project was a success. From then on, it was the start of something bigger. I would go on to make more advanced macro scripts streamlining other time consuming tasks not just for my own department but many others. The hard work I put in eventually helped transition me to the IT department where I officially continued my coding work and took on other responsibilities.
The courage and conviction I had to make something happen impacted the company’s bottom line and I felt proud of what I had accomplished. More than anything though, I was able to serve the people around and help make their lives just a little bit better.
Perhaps you’ve been in a similar situation where your interest in coding has dropped off or maybe you’re completely burned out from it. The one significant aspect I realized from my renewed interest in coding is that it is so much easier to learn and apply knowledge when you have a sense of purpose. In an academic setting, it felt meaningless learning programming concepts and theory but once I actually utilized it in the real world where your work has the potential to impact and benefit others it changes how you approach the subject.
I urge you today if your interest in a coding career is waning or maybe you’re unfulfilled in some other aspect of your life to choose to proactively seek out and decide what your purpose will be. It can be things like deciding to be a leader in your company, training others in how to do their job better, or even just making someone’s day just a little bit brighter. Having a sense of purpose can only help give you a better sense of what really matters, where you need to go, what you need to do, and ultimately drive you to succeed in whatever you choose to do in your life.