I'm in my third year of a game development degree, but I'm starting to question whether programming is the right fit for me. I've loved computers since I was young—troubleshooting broken software, installing applications, switching between Linux and Windows, maintaining hardware and software, and learning how operating systems work. Programming seemed like the natural career path, so I chose game development at university.
However, whenever I actually have to code, it feels more like a chore than something I enjoy. I get bored while solving programming problems and find myself distracted. What confuses me is that I love imagining and designing a game from scratch, yet the process of building it doesn't hold my attention for long.
Could my interests be better suited to IT support, systems administration, DevOps, infrastructure, or another area of technology? Since I'm already three years into my degree, how should I explore these options without feeling like I've wasted my time?
5 Answers
Keep in mind that the imagined version of a job is usually more exciting than the daily reality. Systems administration also includes repetitive maintenance, documentation, ticket queues, and familiar problems. Try getting practical exposure before deciding—set up a home lab, manage a few virtual machines, experiment with Linux services, or help maintain systems for an organization. That will tell you more than simply imagining the career.
You haven’t wasted the last three years. You’ve learned enough programming to discover that you may not want it as your main job, and that knowledge can make you stronger in many adjacent roles. Before committing to a new path, pay attention to whether you enjoy the process or only the idea of the finished result—every technical career has routine work, so finding a type of routine you can tolerate matters.
DevOps or infrastructure engineering might be worth testing. Try working with Docker, virtual machines, CI/CD pipelines, deployment tools, and cloud or self-hosted services. Some scripting is still involved, but the focus is often on making development and production systems reliable. If that work also feels dull, traditional systems administration or hands-on IT support may be a better direction.
Based on what you described, IT support or systems administration sounds more aligned with your interests than software engineering. Troubleshooting machines, managing operating systems, maintaining hardware, and helping users are all valuable technical skills, but they aren’t the same as writing software. Your programming experience still helps because it gives you a better understanding of what developers and applications need.
Game development involves much more than gameplay programming. You could look into build and tools engineering, technical art, sound, automation, infrastructure, deployment, or operations and security. These roles still benefit from knowing how games are made, but they may involve more systems work and less feature coding.
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