How to Navigate Rapidly Changing Digital Industries
At a recent industry conference, our CTO Bojan Andrejek delivered a talk that traced his 20-year career across photography, film, blockchain, Unreal Engine, and AI — and the pattern that connects it all. The core question: in industries that reinvent themselves every few years, how do you stay relevant?
His resume reads like chaos — web developer, photographer, filmmaker, animator, blockchain educator, Unreal developer, AI builder. But like the plot of Slumdog Millionaire, every seemingly random experience became useful later. Nothing was wasted. Building websites as a kid in Serbia led to national awards. A photography studio taught him that creativity and business aren't separate worlds. Directing 70+ music videos built production instincts that would later apply to real-time 3D pipelines.
The freelance years took him global — working for IBM, Facebook, Volkswagen, L'Oréal, the Australian government, and the Norwegian Maritime Competence Centre. Each project forced adaptation to a new industry, a new way of thinking. He co-founded six companies along the way: some succeeded, some failed. A media company became one of the fastest-growing in the country. A metaverse venture hit $40 million valuation before the crypto collapse. An educational startup was sold to Australian investors.
The turning point came in 2020. COVID stopped all film production, and Bojan asked himself one question: what technology combines everything I know? The answer was Unreal Engine — a convergence platform that spans film, gaming, simulation, automotive, and architecture. He'd had a car configurator project where the hired team failed, so he learned Unreal himself. That decision defined everything that followed.
Today at b/ackcode, those layers have collapsed into one capability. The real-time division builds configurators for luxury brands. The web/mobile division delivers platforms like MetaEsthetics. The AI research arm shipped AIOS Companion — months before Anthropic released Claude Desktop. 'We didn't wait for the market to validate the idea. We built it first.'
The talk introduced a framework for thinking about career resilience: perishable vs. non-perishable skills. Camera technology, web frameworks, render engines, AI tools — these expire. But curiosity, creativity, systems thinking, lifelong learning, and problem solving compound over time. Every industry shift makes them more valuable.
Three principles emerged from 20 years of navigating change. First: stay curious — it's the engine that creates opportunities before you know why they matter. Second: leave your comfort zone — 'the biggest career risk today is not failure, it's comfort.' Third: move toward complexity — high barriers mean few competitors, and that's where long-term value lives.
The closing message resonated: 'Technology will keep changing. Complex problems will always exist. And human excellence will always be needed to solve them. Curiosity, creativity, and the courage to tackle complex problems — these never go out of date.'