Getting Started with Modern Computer Programming
Beginners when starts programming faces a lot of confusion on what to do and what not as everyone doesn’t get a good alumnus who helps him/her start a career. So in this post, I have tried to sum up all the paths and technologies one can opt to start.
It is hard to cover all the programming languages in a post because there exists approx 9000 programming language and just 50 of them are the popular ones used nowadays. So even if I’ll start writing about 50 popular ones this post will be a mess.
In this post, I would like to cover a topic somewhat related to that. So this post is all about popular fields you can choose for if you want to get into IT field irrespective of your degree, age or marks.
To start coding you need not have meritorious,18 year old, pursuing graduation or graduated in IT field. You just need to have dedication and willingness to start to code and if you have that, it doesn’t matter if you are going to write the first line of code or coding since childhood.
I hear people saying and asking for top programming languages to learn or top programming languages to start with this is best and blah blah… So I want to quote something for you.
Yes, there is no best programming language to start with, there is nothing like the best programming language. Do code in the programming language you like you are comfortable in. You can write code in any programming language using the same logic and to switch from one programming language to another you one thing just need to know is the syntax.
NOTE: I will suggest learning one from C++ and Java at least Python as it helps you building your object-oriented programming skills and there are many coding platforms on which companies conduct coding test and they support only C++, Java and Python.
There are many myths about coding, I hear people do you can’t start coding if never had computer as a subject in your high school. Some say that you need to start learning to code at a young age. No, all these are wrong you can start learning to code even you are in your 30s or 40s if you have the willingness to learn. You can learn to code either you are doing B.Tech. or B.A. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is your will because if my lazy ass can… you can too.
People say that you have to start learning to code with C, then C++, then Java, then Python and so on. That’s completely wrong. You can start with Java, you can start with JavaScript and I assure you’ll never face any issue just because you didn’t start with C. Trust me.
So if you want to start to code you might be having some motive behind it so let’s come to that. Most of the people have the motif is to get a job and a few people have a thirst to create something out of it.
So I will tell you about some fields that are in demand nowadays that you can choose for as your career. I will try to give you a learning and cover the programming languages which you should learn to be onto that learning path to master the field.
When you will go for interviews you’ll find that recruiters want people who ask for pay like freshers and have knowledge like a 2-years experienced professional. And interviews mostly cover the doing knowledge only as they can’t ask you to develop an app in a short span but they will surely test your knowledge with some verbal questions so take a look at them before sitting in an interview.
Being good at coding skills are required but knowing how to make an end product is always a plus because that is what you’ll be doing in a company.
This is true that in MNCs you might get a project, not of your skillset and you’ll have to learn that because that’s how the industry works, they are paying you for the company’s growth, not your personal development but sitting in the interview with some skills help a lot in landing the job.
Below are the streams which you can opt for as a career in IT Field which is in demand and I have also given some brief about them. Search over the internet to find more and more about them before choosing.
1. Machine Learning, AI and Data Science
Python is used mostly in Machine Learning and AI. So if you want to get into Machine Learning or AI then you have to focus on your python programming skills and using packages like NumPy, pandas, scikit-learn etc.
I suggest first learn Matplotlib to learn before going into AI and ML. Matplotlib is a python library that helps in data visualisation and helps a lot in visualising the results of your machine learning models.
Google has also launched a JavaScript version of their TensorFlow library i.e. TensorFlow.js that has enabled machine learning capabilities available on a web browser and Node.js for server-side and back-end development.
To know more about TensorFlow.js — Click Here.
R programming language is mostly used in Data Science, Data Science is more towards analytics and statistics whereas ML deals with making working models.
2. Web Development
Web development is one of the trendiest stream people like to follow and with the evolution of microservice architecture, it has become more intuitive and beautiful.
There are numerous technologies and programming languages getting used in web development but the newest one and in demand most is JavaScript.
After years ECMA upgraded the JavaScript and came with ES6 in 2015 and continuously upgrading it every year now and pushing new changes.
If you want to get into the web development then I’ll suggest MERN stack.
MERN stands for Mongo Express React and Node.
MongoDB is a NoSQL database, it uses a key-value pair while storing data like JSON.
Express is a web application framework for Node.js that provide some set of features that makes the development of web apps easy.
React is a JavaScript library used to design front-end user interfaces for single-page web applications.
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that runs JavaScript code on the server-side.
You can also go for Angular instead of React and that will be called MEAN stack but React is in more demand. Angular is a front-end framework by Google built upon TypeScript.
There is also one more alternate for front-end and i.e. Vue.js and that combination is called MEVN stack, Vue is a JavaScript framework and is pretty good but since it is new so it has a small community, in simple words fewer answers to your query on StackOverflow.
It is not necessary to learn the whole stack. You can choose either front-end (React or Angular or Vue) or back-end (Express, Node and MongoDB) as per your choice and interest. Learning both front-end and back-end is full-stack.
PWA (Progressive Web Apps) are also becoming a new trend nowadays.
And yes, don’t forget HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They are the first to do.
Check out my post to Get Started with HTML, CSS and JavaScript and a full-fledged path to Become a Front End React Developer.
3. Mobile App Development
There were days when mobile app development meant Android or iOS but now we’ve hybrid apps i.e. a mobile app that supports both Android and iOS built using single code.
Still, there are requirements of Android and iOS developers in the industry but slowly hybrid apps are dominating over the native apps.
Earlier Android App Development was using Java as a programming language but now Kotlin has also being used and might replace Java.
When we talk about iOS App Development iOS Apps are built on Apple’s own Swift programming language. There is a good amount of demand of iOS Developers in the industry but the reason that many people can’t pursue iOS Development is that everyone can’t afford Apple Devices.
In hybrid apps, there are a lot of frameworks but React Native is one which is in demand a lot and Flutter after that. React Native is based on JavaScript whereas Flutter uses Dart by Google. Developers prefer React Native over Flutter because it is very similar to React so it is like killing two birds with the same stone.
4. Game Development
Game Development is the art of making designs and developing games. I suggest an article from freeCodeCamp to know more about it. They have explained it very well. Click Here.
There are a lot of Game Engines to develop games, which most of the developers use and many big gaming companies have their own gaming engines. The one you can start with is C# and Unity.
5. Software Testing
Software Testing is a field where less coding is involved. Here developers write code to test apps instead of developing apps. So Basically Testing is just testing each and every feature of an application.
Software Testing can be done in two ways:
- Automated Testing
- Manual Testing
Manual Testing is testing the Application manually whereas Automation testing is mostly done using Selenium, Selenium Web Driver is available on both Java and Python.
There are various types of testing and there are various tools and techniques for it.
6. Web Scraping
Web Scraping is illegal though most in-demand skills nowadays. It happens a lot in the corporate world.
Web Scraping is automating the stuff in the browser and fetching the data available here. It is illegal of course because you are stealing data from a website with the permission of the owner.
The two frameworks famous for Scraping is Puppeteer in node.js and Beautiful Soup in Python.
7. UI/UX or Graphic Designer
Designing is an IT field where no coding skills are required. Designing as we all know is to design things and it is same in the IT field as well. And we have different tools for designing different things. And I’ll suggest you start with Tools from Adobe as it is used most and in demand in the industry.
Earlier Adobe Photoshop was ruling the designing industry but with Adobe XD things have become more intuitive and beautiful. The beauty of Adobe Tools is that you can copy and paste a path from one tool to another very smoothly.
If you like designing I will surely suggest you try Adobe Illustrator, irrespective of from which field you are in and what stream you want to choose. Adobe Illustrator creates stunning vector Illustrations and Graphics.
Checkout courses on Udemy and start your Coding Journey now.
