Life Of a Software Developer: How Technical Skills And Life Experience Play a Crucial Role
A good and secure future with almost abundant scope in career growth does sound very pleasant being a software developer, but all of this is backed by years of skill development
By Prasoon Nigam •
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We're living in a world surrounded by technology. It's become an important part of our lives. From a smartphone to a washing machine or even a refrigerator, we are dependent on these machines that make our lives so easy. What makes these appliances work in such a brilliant way are software. Software is something that guides the said machine to follow the desired set of steps or rules. This might sound like a simple task, but it is not. Developing software is a full-fledged work that requires a great skill set.
"Software development refers to a set of computer science activities dedicated to the process of creating, designing, deploying, and supporting software." This is a typical definition of software development. In simpler terms, a software is the bridge that connects a piece of technological hardware and humans. Developing such a software is the major part of any software developer's life.
Being a software developer comes with its own quirks. A good and secure future with almost abundant scope in career growth does sound very pleasant but all of this is backed by years of skill development. To become a software developer, one needs to master at least one of the languages that computers understand. It can be either JavaScript, C++, Python or one of the other few available. Choosing a language to work on also decides the long-term career path for a software engineer.
Although it may seem like one of the new-age career options to choose from, the professional developers are mostly those who start their journey even before many understand what computer languages are. From a very young age, developing their skills through the course of their lives and evolving it with their experience is what makes them successful. It's very hard to find developers who are top in their field but started relatively later than others. These few people would be the real prodigy.
Throughout their life, a software developer faces many challenges that add and improve their overall skill. Right from working on an outdated system which crashes when the errors are too complex, to walking miles to an internet cafe just to run a program teaches them the right amount of patience. This patience is a necessity for the job because bugs and errors are something that latch themselves to developers' shadow. No matter how skilled any developer is, every developer has to deal with bugs and errors in the code. With experience, this feat becomes easier.
Developers also have a chance to participate in various coding competitions, many of which are even at international level. Top developers from around the world compete in these where everyone gets to learn something new. The competition may revolve around the speed of writing a code or developing something unique or even finding and fixing bugs. These experiences shape the long career path of a software developer.
Nowadays, the competition is tough as ever and although the demand for developers keeps rising, not all are accepted due to the high skill level requirement. Many young developers are also freelancers which gives them the freedom of choosing their work. They also prefer working from home as there is no need to go to an office because all you need for developing software is programming knowledge and a good computer. So, what may sound like an easy job, is in itself a journey one sets to achieve this goal of being a software developer.
