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Have you decided to change your job and the choice fell on programming? Perfect! There are many in-demand, profitable, creative, and inspiring professions in this field. But before you start learning, think and answer a couple of questions. Do you like programming? Are you ready to devote time to this every day? Are you sincerely interested in IT? If the answer to all questions is yes, please read on. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to build a career in IT or fulfill your dreams of working for a reputable Software development company.
Who is a programmer?
A programmer develops programs and algorithms to solve specific problems. In their work, programmers use mathematical modeling and write code on its basis. Programmers work on creating computer games, operating systems, websites, and applications.
Anyone can become a programmer, regardless of gender or age. But you should be sincerely interested in computers and web technologies. They develop and change every day. So, a specialist needs to check these changes and constantly learn something new.
Programmers have such traits as:
- Stress tolerance
- Attentiveness
- Perseverance
- Responsibility
- Creativity
What do you need to know and be able to do as a programmer?
The work of a programmer can’t be called simple. Here is a shortlist of requirements of what a programmer should be able to do:
- Be able to write codes and read other people’s codes
- Have mathematical ability and logical, analytical thinking
- Be interested in information technologies, have deep knowledge in this area, and constantly update them
- Know English
- Have the ability to multitask
- Be able to automatically translate solutions to business problems into machine language
- Know how to enter, process, store information using the programs
- Create, customize, and implement software products into production
- Be able to automate repetitive processes
- Test the developed product and be able to fix the identified errors
- Understand technical specifications and compose them yourself
- Be able to use programming tools, frameworks, and auxiliary programs
Which programming language to learn first?
Programming is the process of creating programs (software). To do this, programmers write source code in one of the programming languages.
There are over 300 programming languages. But you can choose from the ten most popular for a successful career. It is better to first decide on the field you are going to work in. And then proceed with the choice of the programming language.
In the industry, there are conventionally several areas in programming:
- Web development (the creation of sites and applications) — the languages PHP, JavaScript, SQL, Python are relevant. By default, knowledge of CSS and HTML is necessarily added to the list.
- Custom applications – C, C ++, C #. Many companies make their own C modifications for personal use, like Nvidia.
- Mobile apps — Java for Android and Swift for the iOS platform. In 2017, a new programming language was presented called Kotlin.
How to Start a Career in IT?
- Choose a specialization. Think about what attracts you. It can be mobile development, games, web, etc. Choose from the list above and see what programming languages are used in each area.
- Choose your education path. You can start with free courses and then move on to paid ones. In fact, very few people can master programming themselves. In any case, you need someone who can point out mistakes and help fix them.
- Practice. Do your homework, look at and repeat someone else’s good code, search for answers in Google if you don’t understand something, etc.
- Create a portfolio. You should have examples of your unique projects. It has to be something original and effective. Remember that you will demonstrate it to a potential employer. Prepare at least three to five of these projects. Before using them as your portfolio, let an experienced programmer from AssignmentCore.com do your coding assignment for money or users of IT forums look at the code.
- Keep learning. Always. It is easy to enter IT for junior positions. But it’s harder to climb to the intermediate level. So, keep learning new programming languages and technologies.
Where to Find Your First Job?
Learning programming is undoubtedly not an easy task. But after you finish your studies, you have an equally important step — entering real programming and finding your first job.
There are several ways to start your career as a programmer:
- Testing. If you are ready to start small, try to go through software testing. It is easiest to find a job in these specialties. This will allow you to start with easy tasks and gradually prepare yourself for more serious work.
- Internships. If you want to start working as a developer right away, you have two options. You either find an internship (free or paid) or apply for a programmer assistant or junior position. At first, you will not receive high wages. But the more experience you get, the more opportunities will open up for you.
- Freelance. There are no mentors on freelancing, but you can get a lot of skills on different tasks. If you are proficient enough in your programming skills, you can start taking orders or doing private orders for software development and support. The demand for such work is very high.
- Startups. There are no big salaries either. But no one requires deep knowledge and skills from beginners — they teach everything in the process of work.
Every order is a step towards success. Get yourself some projects and work on them. You will be surprised how many things you can do — you just need to try.