How to Become a Software Developer? | 10 Tips

What is Software Engineering?

Practically before you start to sketch, you'd conceptualize it. You'd follow certain design principles in coming out with it as expected. Similarly, it's the same for software developers to start with a software development project. The software has a lifecycle; throughout it, engineering techniques are utilized to start the development process. This systematic approach to software development is called Software Engineering.

What Does a Software Developer Do?

Suppose you are a software developer or an engineer in an X company, and your manager asks you to develop a product or a platform as per his/her requirement. Before starting anything, you would analyze the requirements that have been asked. Later design the flow of tasks it is meant to perform. Begin to develop the design from scratch as planned.

Of course, what’s developed must be maintained and tested to make it efficient and effective. Finally, evaluate for its correctness. With this in progress, you’d update your boss at each phase of the software development process.

It might seem like, “Is that it?” This works in a loop and is a forever cycle as software is developed to reach its best abilities and meet the requirements of an end-user. To ultimately make it easy to use and reliable!

In short, “analyze, design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate” is the phase of a software development process. And this is what a software developer takes care of throughout the lifecycle of the software at each iteration. This ultimately leads us to the very first question: "How to become a software developer from scratch?”

10 Tips to Become a Software Developer

If you are a curious aspirant, this is what you’d be waiting for from the beginning! Here you’ll know all about it.

1. Pursue Computer Science-related Degree or Certificate

You’d start exactly right by pursuing a Computer Science-related degree. It can be computer science or information science. A computer science engineer deals with programming languages to build web and mobile applications. At the same time, an information science engineer deals with the crux of security, networking, and the smooth running of the applications themselves.

Although distinction must not be a matter of a big deal as it isn’t hard to learn and adopt different operations in information technology while being relevant in the field. If you wonder how to become a software developer in India, having a 4-year degree such as Bachelor in Technology or Bachelor in Engineering is a common but not the only way to start your career on the right foot.

Several companies don’t find this as a major criterion and hire mechanical, civil, electrical/electronic graduates into these roles. And several companies don’t consider you to have a 4-year degree to be professional but only the skill and zeal to be one!

Remember, in the end, your skill matters more than your degree. A degree is one of many ways to prove your skills. You can also demonstrate your skills by building projects, doing internships, and working as a freelance developer.

2. Learn a Programming Language**

This is the primary skill of a software developer, and if your mind likes problem-solving, getting hands-on programming gets easier as you practice over time. If you are asking yourself, why learn a programming language? Since the computer was invented, scientists have wanted to learn to talk to computers. The first-ever high-level language C was discovered in 1972, which got machine coding closer to human-level language. If you want to interact with computers, you better learn it!

Here are a few commonly used programming languages. Remember, once you get comfortable with one, it gets easier to pick and work with others:

• JavaScript

JavaScript is commonly called JS - an abbreviation. You would remain stunned if I said Brenden Eich discovered JavaScript, which was earlier named Mocha, in just ten days! As the name suggests - script, it’s a client-side scripting language used widely in web development to control interactive elements on the website. With that said, using it for desktop and android applications comes in handy. This significantly leans you towards web development.

Also, to use web development frameworks and tools, it’s required that you know JavaScript! You may consider learning software engineering concepts from zero to expert with Scaler Academy's Full Stack Developer Course.

• Python

It is an easy-to-learn programming language. Python is often used as a programming language in Data Science, software development, automation, or website development.

Get going to study the python language from Scaler Topics for free. It is structured to teach you the language the most efficiently, sequentially going through all major concepts in Python.

• Go

This is also called ‘Golang’, developed by Google engineers. Go makes it easier to perform cloud-based programming, web development, and data science, to name a few of its use cases. It is best to choose if you want to incline toward cloud computing.

• Java

It is an object-oriented language used in developing Android, Desktop, and Web applications. Here’s the Scaler Topics course - Java for beginners to learn Java from scratch to advanced.

Another good thing about using Java is that it performs by writing once and running everywhere. This feature makes Java compatible with various platforms while you compile it on one.

• C#

C# is among those languages constantly rising to the top of the list of the top 5 programming languages. However, C# is a general-purpose programming language developed by Microsoft for the .Net framework.

Along with backend web development language, C# is used in multiple areas like windows application and game development. The C# language offers various features, such as a faster compilation rate, being updatable, component-oriented, and much more.

3. Figure Out Your End Goals

The most important question that arises in the path before starting is where you want to see yourself. Suppose you want to start as a Data Scientist, then your path is clear, and you may do everything in your vicinity to learn skills related to that field. So you don’t need to worry about JavaScript or HTML but about Python, SQL, Tableau, Machine Learning, and Excel.

However, if you want to see yourself as a full-stack engineer, then focus on web and mobile development tools and frameworks like HTML, CSS, JS, React, Node, Flutter, etc.

Determine what makes your career and set a clear way to work towards it. Also, try to get a hold of the industry you want to work in after experiencing a few domains.

4. Enhance Your Skills

The most important aspect of all is to enhance the skills it takes to be a software developer, and that's everything you need.

• Git and Github

As a software developer, these version control tools play a significant role.

A version control tool is also called source control and is responsible for tracking changes in the codebase. The version control system records every change to a code in a distinct “version”. This helps protect source code when a developer messes up and wishes to undo it.

Learning the tool can aid you when joining a company, as 70% of the companies use Git in the market.

• Code editors

When you are a part of the coding community, you will deal with practicing codes regularly, and hence the use of code editors such as VS Code or Atom and even Jupyter Notebook is a must.

• Unix

You never know when this requirement is, but if you know this, it's great! Sometimes when you need to work in a LINUX environment, you must know how to use Linux commands.

• SQL and database

We agree that every developed platform will have a database where it stores the data. As a developer, we might need to work with the database and to interact with the database, you must understand the basics of SQL to perform operations.

5. Start Practicing in Your Developer Niche

Assuming you want to be a Data Scientist requires you to have a better hold on analyzing and interpreting the data and using the tools to do it effectively. Start using a dataset on Kaggle to perform exploratory data analysis and data visualizations to understand the trends and patterns. Similarly, it holds good for all the other areas of IT. Such as to be a developer, you must have great programming skills.

Remember, if you think this isn’t a cup of tea in just one try, then you’re wrong! Even an experienced professional to date takes challenges or solves programming questions on websites like InterviewBit. For a fact that they want to be better at it.

6. Find a Community of Software Engineers

Stack Overflow is a popular community that gathers software developers in one place. Likewise, many communities of software developers aid you in understanding the related queries better, specific to your niche. Your knowledge enhancement and skill development happen when you are a part of the community. Today someone might be answering your queries, and tomorrow, you will resolve others' queries.

7. Make a Portfolio of Your Software Development Work

Projects, projects, and projects! Especially in the computer science industry, whether you have experience in the industry or not, this can turn out to be a savior. Start indulging in building as many projects as you can to expand your knowledge and showcase your skills to recruiters. These collective projects can create a great portfolio for you, as they can serve to be supporting evidence of the skills you possess.

8. Do Some Internships

So, you have a portfolio, now, it’s good to start with an internship that is anywhere around six months to apply for a full-time role. While the portfolio depicts the skills, the internship depicts your understanding of the real-time use case as well as your experience of real-time tasks. That’s enough to headhunt for the position you wish to apply for in the companies.

9. Certify Your Skills

Certain firms expect you to be certified, and some don’t. Although when you are starting, these certifications can add some weight to your profile. This certainly validates your skills and doesn't allow them to rethink even though you are a newbie!

10. Ace Your Job Interview

Finally, with everything ready at your end, you are well prepared to go ahead and apply for the interviews. You’ve taken necessary courses, created a portfolio, applied for internships, and have certified skill sets. That’s everything you have to begin with. One thing that’s left is an interesting resume.

It’s time you communicate everything you’ve done effectively in the resume. Because that’s ultimately what the recruiter sees, and it must attract HR’s interest in your candidature.

Different Types of Careers in Software Development

Here is some information about various careers that you can pursue in the software development field, along with their average annual salaries in India.

See More

• How to Become a Software Developer in India?
• Key Skills for Software Developers
• Difference between Software Engineer and Software Developer