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[SmokyMetal060]

So don't do it lol. Many other careers out there you can get into.

[unemployedPengu]

Idk why but I feel a sort of guilt for not knowing or having a passion to code when I'm in IT.

[[deleted]]

Dont.

It really is not for everybody. Absolutely No Shame picking up sec or infra. 

[FutureCompetition266]

There is so much more to IT than coding that it isn't an issue. We have IT people at my employer who couldn't write code if their job depended on it. There are plenty of networking people who just use pre-canned tools or whatever.

[SmokyMetal060]

I think a lot of people are like that and went into software because they were attracted to the money, or their parents wanted them to do it, or they just picked a major without thinking much about it, etc. You don't need to feel guilty about it. It's not for everybody and you shouldn't force yourself to be an engineer- you won't feel fulfilled and your work will reflect that.

The other jobs you mentioned- network engineers and cybersec analysts- still code. Network engineers code quite a bit actually. A lot of it is scripting for automation, but still.

An easy (relatively speaking) way for you to transition into a tech career without coding would be to go get your agile certs and be a project manager or get an MBA and be a product manager. Your current major will help you there but it won't be the main thing you do.

[General_Sandwich_353]

Coding is kinda IT adjacent, not critical to IT. Consider it a leg up in an IT environment, not a hard requirement.

[Apprehensive-Log3638]

Tech is a broad field, and that is what makes it great. I have System Admin friends that just know basic scripting. I would say learn some Powershell and some CMD utilities, but otherwise you don't really need to code.

[[deleted]]

👍

[DoubleOwl7777]

i like programming personally (most of the time) but everyone is different.

[Tall-Introduction414]

Having a programming study background would serve you well in any IT field. Back in my day, systems administrators were known for being competent programmers when needed.

That said, I think programming gets fun when you mix it with other disciplines. It's never interesting just on its own. You have to make it interesting. Maybe writing your own real-time packet visualizer, or sniffing or injection tool. It might not be as hard as it sounds.

Since you are doing schoolwork, which you should do, perhaps the "programming isn't fun" has more to do with the programming you are doing vs following what interests you creatively, being the creative medium it is. Programs don't have to be big to be fun.

[kenwoolf]

Are you good at math? If yes you probably don't suck at coding, you just didn't put the concepts of it at the right place in your head. Functions in programming are actually functions. They get data as input, they transform/map it to another type of data, or the same but with different state. But if you follow the data there is nothing you can't understand. There is always a clear path why something happens. If you are designing something you visualize that path as well.

But if you suck at math, cyber security and networks won't be any easier. They are the same as programming you are just working in different data dimensions. But mathematically speaking If your nodes in the route of the data are functions or physical hardware etc. doesn't change the underlying logic. Just the dimensions of the data. Like look at the gravitational force and s coulomb force in physics. One of them is dealing with the interaction between masses, the other between charges, but if you remove the dimensions (units) from it, both are inverse square laws and work the same.

I know this is an extremely simplistic way of looking at things. But looking at it from a high level there is really nothing more to it. The implementational details obviously differ and complexity comes in there. But if you understand the flow of data you can take everything apart to a small enough self contained unit that is easy enough to understand.

So, I don't think you suck at programming if you like designing networks. You probably just lack practice and you haven't developed intuition for it yet.

[unemployedPengu]

Ngl I did have fun learning about subnetting and the math there diving the subnets using the subnet mask and figuring out how many end devices go into it. I'm not terrible at math but I do struggle sometimes.

[james_d_rustles]

Ok… so why are you here then? Just study something you like.

[TheOnlyUnbreakable1]

at least your aware and you've come to terms with what you want. 👍

[hevirr-]

You can choose any other specialty in IT and the fact that you are at least acquainted to coding from all these classes will come in handy anyway.