If you’re a novice in the IT world with hopes of becoming an expert software developer, this post is for you.
Software development is one of the most competitive, saturated and diverse fields in IT. It is an aspect of computer science that deals with the process of creating, designing, programming and maintaining software. While it is possible to have a career in software development without having a prior history in tech, a degree in computer science would help. Budding software developers should have a preliminary understanding of how a computer system works and fully understand the fundamentals and the theoretical aspects of IT.
Whether you have a degree in any IT related field or not, if you have plans on becoming a software developer, you should know a few things:
The first and most important thing anyone must have before going down this path is patience, closely followed by persistence and consistency. Having a successful career in software development is very enticing, but no expert has ever claimed it was easy. Like all fields in tech, learning software development requires patience and consistency. You must also be willing to learn and unlearn as you go further and practice as often as possible.
You must remember that when writing codes, you must be focused, meticulous and aware because the slightest error in a code line would prevent the program from running efficiently.
Demystifying the Developer Myth
You are also not required to memorize thousands of code lines. Online libraries and documentation were created for just that purpose, and trying to cram as many codes as you possibly can is not advisable.
Software development is a really broad field in IT, and the career paths associated with it are numerous. It is therefore important to carefully decide what path you wish to follow and work towards it. To explain better, there are full-stack developers, frontend developers, and backend developers in the case of web developments. A frontend developer is in charge of building the user interface of a website, a backend developer is in charge of the server-side of the website, while a full stack developer is proficient in both frontend and backend development. It will be redundant learning the steps of becoming a backend or a full stack developer when you wish to become a frontend developer.
Conclusion
Becoming a software developer in this day and age has been made easier with the help of the internet, free online courses and boot camps, and code libraries. With the availability of a good internet connection, a good laptop, patience and a zeal to learn, anyone can be an expert software developer.