Aspiring progammers should create a defined path with an actionable strategy to sharpen their coding skills. Hari Krishnan Nair shares a few tips for aspirants to carve a better professional graph

Technology segments such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning along with robotics have opened up a plethora of opportunities for developers in the country. India continues to lead in terms of the growing base of software developers with the fastest-growing concentration of programmers in the world. Currently, the country has witnessed a significant spike in demand for roles like IT Security (Up 166 per cent), Full Stack (Up 110 per cent), Android Developers (Up 80 per cent), Data Analytics (Up 44.7per cent) and AngularJS (Up 40 per cent) according to the data released by Quess.

Aspirants ambitious to build a career in programming should create a defined path with an actionable strategy to sharpen their coding skills. In a highly competitive environment, it becomes difficult for young graduates and freshers to figure out how to start and carve a successful career in this domain.

Carve a better career graph

Horizontal problem solving

Complex applications are built on various layers. The ability to understand, work and solve issues on them effectively would help one become a better programmer. Programmers aspiring to build a career in software development should at least try to master one or two layers. Post achieving fluency, expert coders can easily tackle different challenges across the product and come up with a cohesive strategy to solve the problem. Horizontal problem-solving covers areas of coding including scalability, stability, performance, reusability of code along with maintenance, and debugging.

Learn techniques and their application

Developers require a wide array of technical and non-technical proficiencies, which allow them to design, implement, test and integrate complex enterprise applications. Ones who are well versed in several languages and coding styles can stand out by gaining a broader understanding of programming fundamentals. To gain an in-depth understanding of programming techniques, it is important to ensure that chosen learning programme credentials offered by any learning partner should include a well-structured curriculum, industry-relevant case studies, and live sessions. Today, multiple leading universities in collaboration with edtech platforms offer comprehensive software development programmes with a deep-dive into skill sets like Cloud foundations, AWS Core & Advanced, DevOps on AWS, Exploratory Data Analysis that can make for an intellectually stimulating and financially rewarding career.

Attend conferences and meetups

Conferences, meetups and hackathons produce great opportunities to build networks. Aspirants can use these events as a networking opportunity and learn new tech trends. Chatting with fellow coders and participating in hackathons also helps assessing one’s own skills and discovering the gaps. It opens up opportunities to get constructive feedback on products, concepts and ideas. It also offers a chance to gain different perspectives, experiences and helps you get valuable feedback from industry experts, inventors and tech pioneers.

Make open source contributions

Making open source contributions is a good way to learn new coding practices, team up with other fellow programmers, and understand the business implications of open source products. It can help budding software developers gain recognition in their respective communities. It also creates a number of opportunities, such as job offers and invitations to attend conferences and events. As open source is visible to the public, prospective employers often inspect code and assess skills written by potential hires. One step further would be to team up with other open source contributors and build a great coding profile.

Peer reviews and collaboration

 Working as a programmer in any organization requires collaboration with other developers in the team. Collaborating and participating in code review activities gives an opportunity to discover more optimal solutions and learn new best practices that are worth adopting. It further encourages younger developers to sharpen their skills and become experts in their field. Activities such as hackathons, peer reviews, technical round-table discussions create a great opportunity to learn from peers.

 The global rise of digital-first business solutions has led to a spike in demand for programmers that can build and customizse these solutions as per organisational needs. Once an aspirant gains fluency in technical skills, there are multiple options available to choose as a career path in Software Development, starting from Front-end Development to Website Development, Data Science, DevOps Engineering, Full Stack Development, and Cloud Development.

The average compensation for skilled professionals in these domains has also moved up from Rs 8 lakh in 2017 to Rs 10 lakh in 2020. Looking at this scenario, it is the best time for students as well as professionals to gain fluency in the programming techniques to build a successful career in software development.

The writer is Co-founder, Great Learning