Gopi Vajravelu
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Experienced Mentor / Insightful Adviser / Creative Thinker
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upGrad
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Gopi Vajravelu is a Senior Software Engineer in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He specializes in building financial software for trading and accounting. In his free time, he serves on a nonprofit Board of Directors that serves low-income families. He also writes a career development blog, Climb Up The Ladder, which helps young professionals get raises and promotions. You can read more career advice like the article above at climbuptheladder.com.
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How to Succeed in Your First Software Development Job
Coming into a new job is always challenging. You have to learn how the company operates, what project each co-worker is responsible for, and navigate the existing office politics. But it’s even more challenging coming into your first software development job. There is an existing codebase that you need to learn, a whole suite of development tools to set-up, and learning the coding style your new team uses. We would like you to know the fact that finding jobs for software developers has become easy. That’s because of the accelerated growth of this industry. And now is the perfect time to brush up your skills if you ever considered of getting into software development jobs. But the question of ‘how to get a software job?’ remains unanswered. However, even if that question is answered and you do land a good software development job, the challenge doesn’t end. In all honesty, the real challenge begins now. It’s essential to know your role thoroughly before you opt for a software developer’s job. Check out our free courses to get an edge over the competition. Without that, it’ll be a tedious task for you to ensure a successful and fulfilling career. There are many things that go into ensuring that you have a seamless experience at your first job, but many candidates often deny the importance of those things, and end up feeling dissatisfied or even worse, burnt-out. None of that is the ideal scenario. If, in fact, you were worried about “How to get a software developer’s job?”, you should definitely know the ways to ensure that you do a good job when you finally get the opportunity. Through my professional experience and training several new software developers, I’ve noticed a few factors that separate the new employees who succeed at the job from those who struggle to get a job in a software company. Here are the 3 steps you should undertake to succeed in your first software development job: Start with a small project Your first goal starting a new job is to prove you can add value to the company. As a software developer, that will often be by fixing a bug, adding a new feature to the existing software, or building a new software program that is complementary to the existing technology in your company. Check out upGrad’s Advanced Certification in Blockchain Fixing a bug is a great first project for a new developer. It allows you to start small and easy to understand the project, which is easier to get help on from more senior developers on the team. They can easily pick up where you have questions and answer them. How to Become a Full Stack Developer But if your first project is to build a new feature or write a new program, break the project down into smaller pieces. Unlike school projects or other IT jobs, software projects can take weeks or months to complete. Focus on breaking down the project into smaller steps that are manageable. Your manager should see some progress after about two weeks on the job. If you are ever struggling to make progress on your first project, ask your manager for help. Explore our Popular Software Engineering Courses Master of Science in Computer Science from LJMU & IIITB Caltech CTME Cybersecurity Certificate Program Full Stack Development Bootcamp PG Program in Blockchain Executive PG Program in Full Stack Development View All our Courses Below Software Engineering Courses Check out upGrad’s Advanced Certification in Cyber Security Expand your technology skillset Once they get comfortable with writing code at work and have completed a few projects, successful software developers focus on improving their software development skills even more. One of the best ways to expand your skillset is to learn full-stack development. As an entry-level software developer, you will likely work on one area like iOS user interfaces, web development, networking, or server-side concurrency. But as you get more advanced in your career, you will need to learn more areas of development to get job offers in more senior roles, which is why learning full-stack development is important. Explore Our Software Development Free Courses Fundamentals of Cloud Computing JavaScript Basics from the scratch Data Structures and Algorithms Blockchain Technology React for Beginners Core Java Basics Java Node.js for Beginners Advanced JavaScript Startups especially love full-stack developers since their project requirements change so frequently and they have small technology teams. They need versatile software developers to build entire technology frameworks from scratch and full-stack developers are the software professionals who can deliver that code. Many companies would rather hire a developer who can work on any part of the development stack than someone who can only work on one part of it. As a result, you should learn full-stack development early in your career as more job opportunities will come your way. The PG Diploma in Software Development by UpGrad is an excellent way to learn full-stack development. With it, you will gain an advantage in your software career. In-Demand Software Development Skills JavaScript Courses Core Java Courses Data Structures Courses Node.js Courses SQL Courses Full stack development Courses NFT Courses DevOps Courses Big Data Courses React.js Courses Cyber Security Courses Cloud Computing Courses Database Design Courses Python Courses Cryptocurrency Courses Advice for anyone who is looking to become a Full-stack Developer Develop interpersonal skills A final element for succeeding in your first software development job is to learn interpersonal skills, otherwise known as people skills and soft skills. Many young developers think that excellent coding skills are enough to get them through their careers. That is not accurate. The best software developers have great communication skills and work well with other people. As a software developer, you will spend a lot of time talking to other developers about your code, talking to management about project requirements, and possibly talking to clients about your software’s use cases. Those aspects of your job require excellent interpersonal skills. Without interpersonal skills, you will find it difficult to get promoted. Fortunately, you can learn these skills by making a few improvements in your body language, verbal skills, and your writing. If you’re feeling stuck on the corporate ladder, maybe your interpersonal skills are holding you back! Read our Popular Articles related to Software Development Why Learn to Code? How Learn to Code? How to Install Specific Version of NPM Package? Types of Inheritance in C++ What Should You Know? You can initiate your career by doing an online software development job. Starting your first software development job can be stressful. Remember to learn one step at a time.
22 Nov 2022
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Why Companies are Looking to Hire Full Stack Developers
It’s no secret that companies today are looking to hire young and talented software developers. But with so many smart developers out there, how can you set yourself apart from everyone else applying for these coveted roles? The best way to do this is to master the skills companies demand: a wide variety of programming skills. When you are learning how to develop software, you can improve your odds of getting a job by learning full stack development. In fact, Indeed ranked the Full Stack Developer role as the #1 job in 2017. Check out our free courses to get an edge over the competition. There are three main reasons why companies love to hire young full stack developers: Full stack developers can solve many problems Companies look to hire people based on what problems the candidates can solve for the company. By definition, full stack developers can work on both backend, frontend, and the protocols that connect the two; being able to create a software product end to end and independently. When you learn full stack development, you have an advantage over other job seekers as you can solve many more problems than other developers. For example, think about working at a high growth startup. Startups need developers who can work on a variety of programming projects. From user interfaces to server-side programming, to database applications, and everything in between. With only a small team, startups want to hire full stack developers who can work on many of the different software projects. As a full stack developer, you build many types of software projects that most other developers cannot. Check out upGrad’s Full Stack Development Bootcamp (JS/MERN) Even at a larger company, hiring developers with the knowledge to work on many different projects gives a manager flexibility to move people between teams as businesses constantly need change. One year, you can have a developer work on a frontend project and then you can move him to a backend project the very next year. The added flexibility makes the manager’s job much easier so they like to work with developers with a wide variety of skills. Check out upGrad’s Java Bootcamp. How to Become a Full Stack Developer Companies love full stack developers because they can solve many different problems for the business. Companies like to hire young developers who are generalists The main reason is that companies hire young developers based on their potential rather than deep domain knowledge. Companies like to teach young developers what they want them to know. As a full stack developer, you have a broad set of technology skills that the company can help you expand further. As an entry-level developer, they don’t need you to understand every algorithm. But you need to have core programming knowledge so the company can teach you what is specific to their business. Let’s go back to the example of working at a startup. When the company is starting out, they need full stack developers to work on all layers of the development stack, but as the company grows, the developers will need to specialise. It’s easy for a full stack developer to start as a generalist and then become a specialist later as the company can hire more employees. On the other hand, it’s very difficult for a specialist to join a startup and learn to be a generalist when the company is small. Full stack developers can grow with their companies more easily than specialists can. In-Demand Software Development Skills JavaScript Courses Core Java Courses Data Structures Courses Node.js Courses SQL Courses Full stack development Courses NFT Courses DevOps Courses Big Data Courses React.js Courses Cyber Security Courses Cloud Computing Courses Database Design Courses Python Courses Cryptocurrency Courses Once you know the basics and get the job, the company will invest time and money to help you expand your knowledge further. Full stack developers can become great managers and executives Companies love to promote people with a wide variety of experiences in the business. As a full stack developer, you will get a chance to work on frontend software, backend software, and all of the architecture that connects them. Through that variety of experience on different projects, you get the opportunity to learn much more than your solely backend and frontend peers. They only get a chance to learn one part of the company’s technology architecture, but you learn the whole architecture and understand how it all fits together. That puts you in a great opportunity to rise through the technology ranks of the company and get promoted. If you work at a startup, your experience as a full stack developer can help set you apart from your peers as the company grows. Where some developers only know how one part of the technology stack works, you understand how all aspects of the technology fit together. As more developers are hired and new technology teams form, you are more likely to manage those new teams because of your wide knowledge. At a large company, you may also get more chances for promotion. When companies look to promote from within, they need people who can manage cross-functional software teams. As a full stack developer, you will know how to talk to developers from both frontend and backend teams. How to Succeed in Your First Software Development Job Of course, technology skills are not the only ones needed to get you a promotion. You will also need to learn business skills to be a manager. But if you do that you can climb high up the corporate ladder. Looking to become a full stack developer? This article does a great job explaining how to get started: How to become a full stack developer. Explore Our Software Development Free Courses Fundamentals of Cloud Computing JavaScript Basics from the scratch Data Structures and Algorithms Blockchain Technology React for Beginners Core Java Basics Java Node.js for Beginners Advanced JavaScript Enroll in Software Engineering Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Executive PG Programs, Advanced Certificate Programs, or Masters Programs to fast-track your career.
31 Jan 2018