How To Choose The Right Career Path In Software Development?

Choosing the right software development career is exciting but it can also be a little confusing. You might have made up your mind to specialize in a specific field within the software industry and are keen on pursuing it.

However, rapid advances in technology might make you realize that opting for one particular field can limit the kind of work you can do in the future. Today, we will be discussing the potential career paths you can choose as a software engineer to secure your present and future.

Sorry to keep you waiting! Fresh off the presses! Here is the updated list of Software Development Blogs

What are the main fields of Software Development?

To assist you in finding the right software development career and deciding whether technology is an appropriate career path for you, we will be covering some of the best software engineering fields.

Backend Web Development

Most computer science graduates or self-taught programmers, mostly start off their careers learning Java or C++ and this lands them a standard role, let’s say, as a back-end web engineer. 

While that’s a good start, limiting yourself to only Java or C will restrict the work you can do later on and you will be competing with a few Java-based back-end development jobs.

The fact is that many successful tech companies today, such as; YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Uber don’t really count on Java anymore and instead use Python or PHP to handle the backend.

What you really need to do here is to pick up languages like Python or PHP while you are learning Java. This will make you a stronger candidate and more attractive when it comes to landing a job.

Front-end Web Development

Another popular software development career is front-end development. It is a comparatively easy place to start if your goal is just to get a job. You choose some frontend web development technologies such as JS, CSS, or HTML and also learn a few frameworks like Angular or React and that will be enough to help you become a front-end developer.

Full-stack Development

Now, if you want to sharpen your skillset and become more desirable as a developer, you might want to learn both frontend and backend development. That will make you a full-stack developer and this will benefit you in the long run.

The reason why full-stack development is beneficial is that websites are here to stay. As smartphones become more powerful, companies are investing more time and money into making the web more responsive, instead of developing native mobile apps and Progressive Web Apps are a perfect example of this.

Choosing a software development career as a full-stack developer is also quite an entrepreneurial step. If you know how to develop both the frontend and backend aspects of the web, you can pretty much launch your company and turn your skill into a long-term business.

Read More: Why I Should and Shouldn’t Use Off-The-Shelf Software Products?

Mobile App Development

This one is big and one of the most popular and highest-paying software development careers. Many programmers have built their careers entirely around iOS & Android application development.

If you are an expert iOS developer but choose to master the art of building Android apps too, that’s all you need to become a mobile app developer. It is in demand and it pays well too. 

All you need to know is Kotlin or Java for Android app development and Swift or Objective C for iOS. As previously mentioned, knowing all the aspects of a specific field means you don’t have to work 9 to 5 with someone. Instead, you can run your own business. With a skill like this, you can even develop your own app. So if you are thinking long-term, that is a good plan.

These aren’t the only software development careers but knowing these will help you get a strong understanding of the software industry. Once you start growing, you can choose more roles for yourself. Here are some other choices:

• Game developer
• Graphic designer
• Data scientist
• BigData development
• DevOps development

Learning these technologies, however, is one thing, and implementing them is a different story. If you are a business looking to hire software developers or a team for your web or application, get in touch with InvoZone.