I think "coding" professionally involves a lot more than being able to write simple programs for fun on his own. That's why I don't really like the term "coding

I think "coding" professionally involves a lot more than being able to write simple programs for fun on his own. That's why I don't really like the term "coding". I considered myself a good programmer, but during my first job as an intern, I was confronted to million of lines of barely documented C++ code (a C compiler for some obscure micro-controler). Most of my time was spent trying to understand what this code was doing, and praying that I didn't break anything. The days were long with no distraction and I had a lot of pressure from my boss. It was horrible. Second job (still as an intern) was the opposite. I was supposed to design a prototype website for a bank. There were a lot of boring meetings and nothing really interesting to do. I didn't feel I could be successful or happy in such an environment (and I ended up in academia). On the other hand, I had schoolmates that weren't passionate about programming and that learned it much later than I did, and did quite well (being persistent with good social skills). I always wonder if I could have had a better experience in different companies.