From a Visual Basic dice game to ERP for European logistics: The developer journey of Tobias Hafner-Fuchs (ECO-Soft GmbH)

A conversation that sticks

At DevJobs.at, our session “Tobias Hafner-Fuchs, Full Stack Developer bei ECO-Soft” with speaker Tobias Hafner-Fuchs from ECO-Soft GmbH distilled a developer mindset built on curiosity, practice, humility, and a habit of looking beyond the screen. Tobias opens with a disarming memory: “I first programmed in fourth grade.” The assignment was a simple dice game in Visual Basic. From there, the path moves forward—sometimes straight, sometimes with detours—but always toward full‑stack work.

What stood out to us: Tobias doesn’t present a neat, linear career. He names a path with pauses and returns. An electronics-focused education, programming basics in C, digital logic up to “how does a computer even work?”; later Java and C on microcontrollers; after graduation came compulsory service, then work in test automation; a social sciences degree; and eventually a return to programming—first as a data manager working with SQL and R, and now full‑time engineering. “Now I’m basically a full-blood programmer again,” he says. That combination of depth, breadth, and rediscovery powers what he builds today: an ERP for a logistics business moving goods across half of Europe—demanding the kind of love for detail that such systems require.

First lines of code: Visual Basic in school

A school project can light the spark. Tobias’ first touchpoint came through “a simple dice game in Visual Basic.” As modest as it sounds, there’s a lot packed inside: state, randomness, logic, UI—and the instant feedback that makes programming addictive. That early exposure to practice is the thread running through Tobias’ story: you learn programming by writing programs.

He emphasizes that principle verbatim later on—and it’s clearly visible from his very first projects. Our takeaway: when you build something of your own early on, you feel ownership over design decisions sooner, and you learn faster from mistakes.

Electronics, C, and digital logic: a broad foundation

After his early start, Tobias chose an education with an electronics focus. He shares that the “first few years were C basics,” alongside digital technology: “learning how a computer works, how you could build a processor yourself.” Later came Java, and in practical workshops he continued “with C on microcontrollers.” The foundation is tellingly broad: C and Java on the software side, hardware awareness and system thinking on the other. Once you’ve looked at how a processor behaves at a basic level, you think differently about algorithms, memory, concurrency, and constraints.

Tobias resists buzzwords and keeps coming back to fundamentals. That stuck with us. Good engineering happens where abstractions are understood—and where, if needed, you can reason one layer down. From Visual Basic to C, OOP in Java to microcontrollers and digital tech, Tobias’ foundation isn’t mere tool familiarity; it’s systems understanding.

Service, first job, and automated testing

After graduation came military service and then a first role in the automation industry. He puts it succinctly: “I automated tests—automated testing for the modules our company produced.” That move reveals two things: a grasp of industrial quality and proximity to real-world product constraints. Automated tests aren’t a footnote. They’re an attitude. A feature isn’t done when it runs on your laptop; it’s done when it is robust, reproducible, and verifiable.

We see a red thread from that experience into today’s work. In complex ERP environments, every automated check is a relief. It makes behavior explicit, and it makes special cases—more on those soon—observable and discussable. It’s easy to imagine how the discipline of test automation helps later when each rule and exception needs to be encoded cleanly.

A social sciences detour—and why it matters

Then comes a turn: “I actually studied something in the social sciences,” Tobias says. Several years away from programming. After finishing, he landed a role at a research institute “as a data manager.” There he worked “more intensively with SQL” and learned “the programming language R, which is suited for transforming large datasets and for machine learning and statistics.”

What impressed us is how naturally Tobias connects the dots: a degree that stepped away from code becomes a re-entry path through data-heavy work—and then back into software. R and SQL hint at a strength that’s invaluable in backends and ERPs: thinking in data, transformations, and traceability. When your daily work is moving large datasets, you inevitably ask: Where does this number come from? Which rules shape it? Which edge cases will break it? Or, as Tobias puts it, “Now I’m basically a full-blood programmer again.”

Full stack at ECO-Soft GmbH—with a clear backend preference

Tobias describes his role at ECO-Soft without hype: “I take care of the frontend—the graphical interface—and the backend, which is the more complicated and cooler one at the same time.” He quickly adds: “I spend most of my time on the backend; I provide data and implement the functionality.” That phrasing says a lot. Choosing to prepare data well and to implement functionality reliably sits at the core. It’s where early foundations (C, Java, microcontrollers) meet later data skills (SQL, R)—a combination that shines in backend work.

What impressed us is that Tobias doesn’t confuse full stack with “a little bit of everything.” He is clear about where he focuses—because that’s what he enjoys most. There’s an implicit lesson here: in full‑stack roles, it helps to cultivate a sharp strength while honoring the interfaces to the other side (frontend).

ERP for logistics: fast-paced, complex—and packed with special cases

Tobias needs only a few sentences to reveal how demanding his current project is: “We are programming an ERP for a logistics company that moves goods across half of Europe.” He describes the domain as “fast‑paced and actually quite complex … our supermarkets are full and those items have to get there, and that’s not easy.” It’s a reminder that every UI and every API meets trucks, drivers, delivery windows, and customer expectations on the other side—where planning and real time collide.

Then he adds a second axis of complexity: “Programming the ERP itself requires you to be very detail-loving, because any customer, any ware, any transport can lead to a special case that you need to implement.” This line is the heart of ERP work. Business rules are never just rules. They’re stories—of exceptions, transitions, and tradeoffs. Translated into code, that means robust data models, explicit states, clear rules—and the humility to accept that you’ll never have seen “all” cases. Edge cases aren’t bugs outside the system; they are the system.

From Tobias’ description, we extract several working consequences for day-to-day engineering in such environments:

• Detail orientation is a virtue, not a vanity. It ensures rules aren’t just outlined, but thought through to their endpoints.
• Special cases are feature drivers. Taking them seriously improves the product—not just the bug tracker.
• Data delivery is product work. In the backend, you determine whether information arrives on time, correct, and complete.

“There is no single educational path”—what really matters

Tobias is explicit: “There is definitely not one single educational path to become a software developer.” Instead, he points to two things that matter.

First: practice. Or in his words: “You learn programming by writing programs.” He notes that the internet is full of code challenges—and that can be a great way to start. We see the deeper posture behind it: don’t wait for someone to assign a project. Don’t second-guess whether you’re “ready.” Build. Fail. Fix. Repeat.

Second: code reviews—and the ability not just to tolerate critique, but to embrace it. “Have your code reviewed by experienced people and really accept their critique,” he says, adding that you’ll often realize “the method I used kind of halfway is not the best.” That’s a key maturity moment. Code quality is a team sport. Style, structure, naming, testability, performance—most of it you learn faster when someone with more miles gives feedback. That requires, as Tobias calls it, “self-reflection”—and the realization that “there’s always someone who programs better.”

We take that as encouragement, not as a threat. Accepting it unlocks growth—and Tobias calls out “willingness to develop further” as a baseline stance.

Beyond the screen: software that solves real-world problems

Tobias compresses one of the most critical skills for product teams into a single line: “It’s very important … to think beyond the screen, because the solutions we develop should solve problems from the real world.” That is a call to treat the business domain seriously—not just as a checklist of acceptance criteria. How do people actually work day to day? What constraints, what rhythms, what failure modes? Tobias’ example—logistics—brings the urgency into focus: “Supermarkets are full and those items have to get there.”

We translate this into three working principles:

• Domain understanding is part of the engineering job. It’s not enough to build an API; you must understand the reality it represents.
• Reality beats the ideal line. If processes are fast and complex, you need solutions that are reliable under pressure.
• Empiricism over theory. “Look at the real world and understand it,” as Tobias urges, isn’t a metaphor but a method: observe, ask, validate.

From practice to practice: how his path informs decisions

Zooming out, Tobias’ journey reveals four threads that keep intersecting:

1) Foundational strength: early C and Java plus digital technology—those are pillars. They make it easier today to build clean functionality and data flows in the backend.

2) Testing and quality mindset: automating tests for modules teaches you that “done” is more than “compiled” or “runs.” In an ERP with special cases, that mindset is essential.

3) Data awareness: SQL and R in a research setting train you to think in transformations, aggregations, and traceability—skills used daily in backend work.

4) Learning posture: a social sciences degree, a return to coding, openness to reviews, and willingness to keep developing—learning is not a phase; it’s the operating mode.

Practical handholds: how to apply these lessons

Without venturing beyond what Tobias shared, there are actionable habits any developer can adopt:

• Start small, ship concrete: A “simple dice game” isn’t trivial—it’s a mini system that works end to end. Small projects, clear outcomes.
• Make rules explicit: If “any customer, any ware, any transport can produce a special case,” every assumption belongs in writing—and ideally in tests.
• Seek reviews, don’t fear them: Proactively ask for feedback, “really accept” it, as Tobias says, and deliberately try alternative approaches.
• Treat data as a product: “Providing data” isn’t a gray zone of infrastructure—it’s core functionality. Delivering data is delivering value.
• Understand the domain: Look “beyond the screen,” observe, ask, think with users. That’s how you close the gap between logic and lived reality.
• Live growth as a habit: “There’s always someone who programs better”—that’s not a verdict; it’s an invitation. What will you learn next? Whose review will you seek? Which practice will you drill today?

Logistics, ERP, and the craft of building for exceptions

Tobias’ concise description of the ERP project offers a necessary reality check: in dynamic domains, exceptions are the norm. Especially when the cadence is high. For developers, that implies:

• Model states, don’t improvise them: Make transitions explicit so you can attach special cases precisely, rather than hacking them in everywhere.
• Treat bugs as design signals: When a special case breaks behavior, it rarely points only to “wrong code.” Often it reveals a gap in the model or in communication.
• Favor robustness over elegance: In fast environments, a clear, traceable flow often beats the supposedly “optimal” version no one can reason about.

We heard in Tobias’ words a kind reminder: love of detail isn’t pedantry—it’s customer protection. It prevents today’s “this should be fine” from turning into tomorrow’s missed delivery. It ensures systems respond sensibly even in edge conditions.

Full stack with grounding: focus without tunnel vision

Tobias names both frontend and backend—and then his clear emphasis: “I spend most of my time on the backend.” That clarity creates focus. Meanwhile, the full‑stack frame prevents isolation. If you provide data and implement functionality, you better understand how UI and use cases attach to it. That same cross‑functional awareness appears in his insistence on real‑world problem solving. Full stack here is not a badge—it’s a way to feel end‑to‑end responsibility.

For teams, the message is straightforward: define roles clearly, lean into strengths—and maintain the seams. The best backend functionality won’t help if the UI doesn’t make it usable; the best UI falls flat if it waits on wrong or late data. Tobias’ description suggests that it’s this union—data, function, surface—that matters in his daily work.

A learning curve with no finish line: critique as a motor

The most personal note in Tobias’ advice is about reviews. “Often you have to realize the method I used kind of halfway is not the best,” he says. It’s a light sentence, but it takes work: decoupling your solution from your self-image. In teams, that’s a core competency. It enables speed by depersonalizing debates. It enables quality by admitting alternatives. And it makes the work enjoyable because learning becomes shared achievement.

If you’re wondering how to cultivate that habit, Tobias’ path offers an answer: practice plus feedback. Not only build—also show. Not only read—also refactor. Not only defend—also let go. That’s how you grow the judgment needed in complex domains—like the logistics setting Tobias describes.

Closing reflection: a reality-first, learning-driven engineering career

Looking back at “Tobias Hafner-Fuchs, Full Stack Developer bei ECO-Soft,” we see more than a job title. It’s a story that starts with a dice game in Visual Basic and today shapes an ERP for a logistics company with Europe-wide reach. Between those points lie C and Java, digital tech and microcontrollers, automated tests, a social sciences degree, data management with SQL and R—and a steady stance:

• You learn programming by writing programs.
• Quality is grown in review.
• There’s always someone who programs better—and that’s a good thing.
• Think beyond the screen; look at the real world and understand it.

From our session with speaker Tobias Hafner-Fuchs of ECO-Soft GmbH, we carry forward a simple truth: the mix of fundamentals, practice, critique, and domain awareness isn’t an accident—it’s professionalism. If you nurture it, you build systems that don’t just run—but hold up where it matters: in the real world, where trucks move, supermarkets stay stocked, and special cases are the standard rather than the exception.

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