UX/UI Designer Continued

How to get started

There are many schools and online platforms to earn your software development education. Some employers do prefer a degree in computer science (especially for internships), but having a degree is not required by many employers. You can begin your coding journey as soon as today! 

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Coding boot camps offer a great way to learn about software development in a short amount of time; programs usually offer full-time and part-time options that range between 3 to 9 months. The average cost for most coding boot camps is between $5,000 and $15,000. It is not required to go to a boot camp or have a 4 year degree to become a developer; you can be a self-taught developer using free online tutorials and self-paced learning programs. 

There are thousands of courses online for as little as a $25 and all the way up to a few hundred dollars. Recommended companies providing coursework include Coursera, Codecademy, Treehouse, Udemy, and Udacity. Some free options include YouTube coding tutorials, Medium.com, and FreeCodeCamp.com.

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Common entry-level titles are junior developer, junior QA engineer, technical support engineer, application support analyst, WordPress developer, and web designer. 

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Things to consider:

There many programming languages to choose from as well as a few different areas of focus. Some of the more popular coding languages include JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, C++, and PHP. Common areas of focus include front end development, back end development, and full stack development. Be sure to do some research to find out which technology stack fits you best. Coding schools usually have career counselors who will gladly discuss all of your options with you free of charge. 

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Software Engineering is a broad term and there are a fair amount of niche roles that can sometimes also fall under the software engineering title such as mobile development like iOS & Android or even cryptocurrency. This may also include roles that focus on managing the actual operating systems that power the software applications as well as managing performance, security, databases, and cloud storage. Other / similar titles include systems engineer, devOps engineer, cloud engineer, data engineer, blockchain developer, cyber security engineer, and embedded software engineer (hardware programming).