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Career Paths if You’re Into Software and Programming

– Contributed content –

Code on screen

(Elchinator, Pixabay)

14 May 2020. Now more than ever there’s a huge demand for professionals with high-end software and programming skills. If you’re about to start out in your professional career or you’re looking for a career change, thinking about which direction you might take things in is important. There are so many little niche areas of work in the world of software and programming, and you need to understand a bit about them before you decide which is right for you.

To help you make a decision about which career path might be best suited to you and what you want to achieve in your career going forward, we’re going to discuss some of the options out there. Each of the career paths we’re about to talk about will offer something interesting and unique, and there is good potential for earning decent money in each of these fields.

Find out more about some of the best career paths in software and programming below.

Game development

Writing code for games and developing games for commercial release is a dream job for many people. But there are some things you should know and understand. First of all, this is not easy work and the hours tend to be very long indeed. Game development can take its toll on you and the competition to even break into the industry is very fierce. Having said that, there’s a lot to love about doing a job that basically involves creating the kinds of games that we all love playing.

Mobile engineering

These days, a lot of the software that we interact with on a daily basis comes in the form of mobile applications. If you’re interested in the development of mobile technology and this is something that you eventually see yourself doing as a career path, then that’s certainly possible. The demand for mobile engineers is not going to die down or go away anytime soon and the growth of mobile technology is still rapid and changing all the time. Maybe you could be a part of that.

Back-end development

Back-end developers do the stuff that goes on around the back, just like the name suggests. Those things that no one really understands unless you do this kind of job are often the most important things. They do the work that gives power to the platform, software or web page that they’re working on. They have to solve problems and deal with issues that are often highly complex. So if you enjoy being challenged each day in your career, this could be the path for you.

Data science

Data science involves working with data and finding trends and patterns. The reasons for doing that and the objectives that are being worked towards will differ depending on the situation and the particular job that you’re working on. But being good at working with numbers, mathematics and statistics is important, so if that’s not your thing, you’re probably not the type of person who’s suited to working in the field of data science. But if you are, this could be just what you’re looking for.

Cyber security

One of the most important things for users today, and especially in the business world, is cyber security. Everyone is understandably concerned about their vulnerabilities and how they might be targeted by hackers and cyber criminals. If it’s something that you’re interested in, there’s plenty of demand for cyber security professionals. You can even get Cyber Security Military Training for College Credit if you want to take that route. There are so many possibilities and options out there and many of them are worth exploring.

QA/test engineering

Before software can be launched and released to the public, as many bugs and problems as possible have to be found and corrected. This ensures that the package that the public or user base get their hands on will have the best and most polished product possible and that’s the way it should be. That’s where QA engineers and testing experts step in. If you love testing and pulling holes in software and really understanding how it works (and how it doesn’t), this kind of work could be ideal for you.

Algorithmic software development

Understanding algorithms and science software development is not easy and it requires a lot of education and researchers. Most people who work in this field have Masters degrees and PhDs. It takes a lot of fine-tuning because algorithms are constantly being improved and there’s also a lot of optimization work and problems solving on top of ongoing research. There’s a lot to it and it’s certainly not easy work to do, but it might be something that you find very interesting.

Full stack development

Full stack development is a combination of back-end development as we discussed previously and front-end development. This involves a wide range of working methods and it requires professionals doing this kind of work to be relatively flexible and adaptable to different kinds of working depending on the needs of the particular job. A company might also hire lots of different full stack developers to cover different kinds of work, allowing for greater specialization. That’s something that will different from employer to employer.

Cloud development

These days, more and more applications are moving to the cloud, and creating as well as maintaining cloud infrastructure is an important task and it requires specialist developers working on it. If you’re looking to work on a kind of software development that’s at the cutting edge and is going to be very relevant for a long time to come, it might make sense for you to start working in the field of cloud development. It’s an interesting niche and definitely worth exploring.

DevOps engineering

DevOps engineers are people who tend to oversee the entire network and computer infrastructure of one particular company. These professionals are necessary when a company grows and its IT infrastructure is so big that it requires that kind of oversight. They need to have an understanding of many different things, from performance testing to security issues. All of those things will and many more will be part of their daily work so versatility is a key attribute.

OS development

For any software to be run on a computer, there first needs to be an operating system. Developers of operating systems are therefore vital and they need to know how to make operating systems efficient, how to manage files and tasks, and organize the scheduling or different tasks on the system. There are lots of different operating systems, including Mac, Microsoft and Linux, so having a familiarity with them will be important.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is something that’s always going to be important. Businesses and individuals use and rely on software every single day, and when people aren’t experts they’re going to run into problems. That’s why having troubleshooting services is so important. Tech support and troubleshooting is always going to be necessary, so if you choose to take this career path, you can be sure that your skills and capabilities are always going to be in demand to some extent and that’s obviously important when choosing a career.

As you can see, there are so many interesting and varied career paths that suit people who are interested in software and programming. If this is the niche that you see yourself working in going forward, you should most definitely explore the options that appeal to you in more depth before taking your next steps.

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