Introduction     

A career in software development is always at a high demand. At the same time, it is a job that includes great benefits. Being a software developer enables you to have the option to get paid for doing smart and challenging tasks, follow a flexible work schedule and acquire new opportunities. In this article, Handy shares how to choose the right career path in the field of software development so that you may begin your journey deliberately as a software developer.

Tips & Tricks

Here are some tips listed below that can help you choose the right career path in the software development field.

1. Have a profound idea regarding career opportunities – To begin your career as a software developer, there are two clear choices available to you – Front-End or the Back-End development. For each of them, there are certain things to learn and master. If you end up having a firm grasp over both, you’ll be able to work as a Full-stack developer. Here are some facts about different kinds of paths in the software development industry –

Front-End- The job of a front-end developer is to turn a design into a fully functional website. You can build content of websites by using HTML and CSS. However, if you want to stay relevant to the trendy web-applications, mastering JavaScript is a viable option.

Back-end- Back-end technologies deal with logic, database interactions, user authentication and so on. PHP, Ruby, Python, Node JS are instances of some of the back-end server programming language which is used to design more complex web-apps.

Full-stack- As the Stack Overflow Developer Survey suggests, full-Stack Development is the most popular option in software development today. If you can master both languages, you can have the advantage of knowing fully about codes across all stacks.

2. Don’t try to specialize in your early days – As a beginner, specializing in a particular programming language may seem a good option, but it does more damage than good to your career. Very few companies look for a niche programmer who only knows one language very well. Try to learn the various programming languages and concentrate on the most popular ones.

3. Know your strengths and weaknesses – To be appointed as a developer, you need to have qualities that set you apart from the rest. So, try to learn what your weaknesses are and work on them. Evaluate all your technical skills, domain expertise, web-experience, and improve further. For example, you might be specializing in Java for 5 years, but a person who has also been working in Java, and simultaneously knows how to optimize NHibernate would have better career prospects. Always try to stay ahead of the pack by learning more skills.

4. Join online dev communities and read books to learn more – There are plenty of opportunities for a software developer to interact with fellow developers (both beginners and experts) on online discussion forums, podcasts, social media chat groups, and blogs. The more you interact, the more your knowledge would increase. You may also consult books to get a better understanding of coding, programming, and software development.

Here are the names of some books that you might find helpful:

• Robert C. Martin’s “Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship.”
• “The Pragmatic Programmer” by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt.
• “Programming Pearls” by John Bentley.
• Peter Seibel’s “Coders at Work: Reflections of The Craft of Programming.”

Conclusion

The software development industry is rapidly evolving day-by-day. Thus, as a software developer, you have to keep learning every single day to stay relevant in the industry. Handy suggests you choose your career in software development wisely so that you can get a buzz out of your profession.

James Montano