You want to become software professional !!! But not sure how. You may have got degree already or you might be getting it in few years. Start now to follow these steps and you might be moving towards a successful career.

I hope you are gone through article Are you made to be software engineer?

1. Clear what do you want to do?

Software Career is made of multiple options – Just like you decided to Bio, Math, Commerce or Humanity in your 11th, same way you need to decide what you want to do in software profession. Never go for money but go for something which you love and can do for years (Yes years!!!) as it is matter of life and not days. You want to do something which aligns with your liking. If you are expert, you will earn good. But you can become expert only if you work hard. You can work hard only if you like something.

You can become coder, tester, analyst, web designer, graphic designer, support engineer, infra structure support engineer, desktop engineer.

This article is focused primarily for coders but can be followed for other software professions.

2. Do I need Computer Science Degree?

Programming also has few streams – system programming (Programming for Operating Systems, Databases etc.), application programming  (Programming for developing business applications) .

Application Programming also have few options – web application programming, mobile application programming, multimedia programming, application program interface, ERP programming, data analytics, embedded software programming, and may be many more.

Interesting most of these are not taught in degree courses. Very few colleges will get into deeper skills. It means people have to learn on it’s own.

3. Start Building your experience from college?

Pick a specific programming area based on your interest, and start building your experience (note…no knowledge only but experience). It means practice using real life problems. Do not wait for college course to be over to start building your experience.  Example you want to do web programming – pick PHP framework or Pythong Django or MEAN stack or Ruby on Rails or Java framework . Start developing solutions using these languages. If you want to work on Android, do build android application with full back end APIs.  There is enough material on internet to help you learn whatever you want to learn. Only thing is that you have to spend time to learn and practice.

4. Behave like Software professional?

Start behaving like software professional and start using tools which software professional use i.e. Integrated Development Environment like Eclipse, Netbeans etc. Github, AWS Cloud etc.  Most of these are free or almost free.

5. Learn from others code

You must develop habit of reading others code. Many times you will find it is boring or bad code but does not matter. You must understand it. You will need this when working on complex big projects. College projects are very small projects and you can start from scratch. But in real life, you will be participating in projects where 100s of people working or you will be working on code which was built by 1000s of people. You may get documentation  or you may not get any support to understand code. Read code, figure out flows and understand business logic. Github can provide you good repository of code.

6. Join a Community

Join a community of software professional which are working on same area where you intend to work. Understand what problems are being discussed, what are answers to those problems. If possible, ask question or give answers. It is going to make you ready for real world.

7. Build Projects

Do not build software programs but build project (atleast group of 20 programs which can work cohesively to deliver a business need).

Once you are confident, participate in Hackathon in your areas where you need to build project in less than 24 hours.

8. Build Resume

Make sure resume has only those details which a employer needs – what you know and how can you be of any use for them. What are skills and what you have built. People are interested in your experiences – software, personal, team, creativity etc.

9. Build your online profile

You must also make your online profile look professional. It means twitter, linkedin, facebook, instagram etc are in sync with your personality. People should be able to relate your resume, online profile and real you. These should not look like split personality.

10. Go for interview with confidence

Getting calls may be difficult. But if you get a chance, you must be able to get offer. All hardwork done over years will help. Ensure you remain confident (not adamant – software professional should not be adamant – technology changes  everyday). You should remain polite and respectful . You should be able to demonstrate your skills if given chance.

If you are not getting chances, go for hackathon events, go for walk-in interviews. Do not go for jobs which you can get easily but not aligned to your liking. Wait . Once you get that job , you know you will deliver best as that is your passion.

Congratulations!!! You are now a software professional.

I hope you are gone through article Are you made to be software engineer?

1. Clear what do you want to do?

Software Career is made of multiple options – Just like you decided to Bio, Math, Commerce or Humanity in your 11th, same way you need to decide what you want to do in software profession. Never go for money but go for something which you love and can do for years (Yes years!!!) as it is matter of life and not days. You want to do something which aligns with your liking. If you are expert, you will earn good. But you can become expert only if you work hard. You can work hard only if you like something.

You can become coder, tester, analyst, web designer, graphic designer, support engineer, infra structure support engineer, desktop engineer.

This article is focused primarily for coders but can be followed for other software professions.

2. Do I need Computer Science Degree?

Programming also has few streams – system programming (Programming for Operating Systems, Databases etc.), application programming  (Programming for developing business applications) .

Application Programming also have few options – web application programming, mobile application programming, multimedia programming, application program interface, ERP programming, data analytics, embedded software programming, and may be many more.

Interesting most of these are not taught in degree courses. Very few colleges will get into deeper skills. It means people have to learn on it’s own.

3. Start Building your experience from college?

Pick a specific programming area based on your interest, and start building your experience (note…no knowledge only but experience). It means practice using real life problems. Do not wait for college course to be over to start building your experience.  Example you want to do web programming – pick PHP framework or Pythong Django or MEAN stack or Ruby on Rails or Java framework . Start developing solutions using these languages. If you want to work on Android, do build android application with full back end APIs.  There is enough material on internet to help you learn whatever you want to learn. Only thing is that you have to spend time to learn and practice.

4. Behave like Software professional?

Start behaving like software professional and start using tools which software professional use i.e. Integrated Development Environment like Eclipse, Netbeans etc. Github, AWS Cloud etc.  Most of these are free or almost free.

5. Learn from others code

You must develop habit of reading others code. Many times you will find it is boring or bad code but does not matter. You must understand it. You will need this when working on complex big projects. College projects are very small projects and you can start from scratch. But in real life, you will be participating in projects where 100s of people working or you will be working on code which was built by 1000s of people. You may get documentation  or you may not get any support to understand code. Read code, figure out flows and understand business logic. Github can provide you good repository of code.

6. Join a Community

Join a community of software professional which are working on same area where you intend to work. Understand what problems are being discussed, what are answers to those problems. If possible, ask question or give answers. It is going to make you ready for real world.

7. Build Projects

Do not build software programs but build project (atleast group of 20 programs which can work cohesively to deliver a business need).

Once you are confident, participate in Hackathon in your areas where you need to build project in less than 24 hours.

8. Build Resume

Make sure resume has only those details which a employer needs – what you know and how can you be of any use for them. What are skills and what you have built. People are interested in your experiences – software, personal, team, creativity etc.

9. Build your online profile

You must also make your online profile look professional. It means twitter, linkedin, facebook, instagram etc are in sync with your personality. People should be able to relate your resume, online profile and real you. These should not look like split personality.

10. Go for interview with confidence

Getting calls may be difficult. But if you get a chance, you must be able to get offer. All hardwork done over years will help. Ensure you remain confident (not adamant – software professional should not be adamant – technology changes  everyday). You should remain polite and respectful . You should be able to demonstrate your skills if given chance.

If you are not getting chances, go for hackathon events, go for walk-in interviews. Do not go for jobs which you can get easily but not aligned to your liking. Wait . Once you get that job , you know you will deliver best as that is your passion.

Congratulations!!! You are now a software professional.

One life. Live Boundless