Everyone wants to be a software developer these days.
I see it all the time. Friends from commerce backgrounds, arts students, and people who have never touched a computer for anything other than social media are suddenly rushing into bootcamps.
Why? Because they see the salaries. They see the remote work lifestyle. And, unfortunately, they see the comparisons.
I’ve lost count of how many times a friend has told me, “My parents said,
Look at Sandip, he has such a good future in IT. You should do what he’s doing.
So, they try. They force themselves to learn Python or JavaScript. They stare at screens for hours. And six months later? They quit. They are frustrated, they feel like failures, and they hate coding.
Here is the hard truth about why this keeps happening, and what people need to understand before they jump into this field.
1. The “Easy Money” Illusion
There is a myth that coding is a get-rich-quick scheme. People think you learn a few lines of syntax, get a job, and suddenly you’re making huge money.
The reality? The money only comes after the struggle. Coding is 90% frustration. It is staring at an error message for four hours only to realize you missed a semicolon. It is constant learning because the tools you use today might be obsolete next year. If you are only here for the paycheck, you won’t have the patience to survive the bad days. And there are a lot of bad days.
2. The Comparison Trap
This is the biggest problem my friends face. Their parents see my career and think, “Coding = Success.”
But you cannot copy-paste someone else’s career path. I didn’t choose this field just because it pays well; I chose it because I genuinely like building things. When my code breaks, I get annoyed, but I also get curious. When my friends who were forced into this see their code break, they just feel panic.
Comparing a commerce student’s path to a developer’s path is unfair. We have different brains. I might be terrible at accounting or creative writing. If my parents forced me to be an accountant because “Sharma ji’s son makes good money there,” I would fail too.
3. Coding is Logic, Not Just Typing
Many people from non-technical backgrounds think coding is just memorizing commands. They treat it like learning history dates.
But software development is problem-solving. It is pure logic.
- “How do I get data from A to B?”
- “Why is this button not working on mobile?”
- “How do I make this faster?”
If you don’t enjoy puzzles, logic, or fixing broken things, no amount of “syntax memorization” will make you a developer. You will burn out because your brain isn’t wired to enjoy the process.
4. Who Should Actually Join?
Does this mean Arts or Commerce students can’t code? Absolutely not. I know amazing developers who used to be musicians or accountants. But they succeeded because they fell in love with coding, not just the result of coding.
They didn’t join because their parents compared them to a neighbor. They joined because they tried it, found it interesting, and stayed curious.
The Bottom Line
To my friends, and to the parents pushing them: Stop chasing the hype.
Software development is a great career, but it is a terrible “backup plan” if you have zero interest in technology. You will compete against people who code for fun on weekends. If you are only doing it for the money, you will eventually be outworked by the people who are doing it for the passion.
Find what you are naturally good at, and the money will follow. Don’t try to be “the next Sandip.” Be the first you.
About the Author I’m Sandip Yadav, a .NET Developer and engineering student passionate about solving real problems with code. I write about my journey in tech, web development, and the reality of learning to code.
🚀 Connect with me: [LinkedIn Link] | [Medium Link]
Note: This article was originally published on Medium.
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