The pace of technological innovation and evolution within the past 2 decades is mind-blowing. It has indeed permeated into all of the human experiences – fostered relationships amongst people by providing viable platforms for timely engagements. Learning has become more simplified and seamless with the use of technology. The traditional means of doing business has been replaced with far-reaching cutting-edge technological solutions.
We are currently in the 3rd industrial revolution (the era of automation and digitization) and speedily diving into the 4th. Knowing this, the need to get practically involved with systems and processes that foster technological growth and development becomes most expedient.
Coding or programming is one of the practical ways to become actively involved in this technological revolution. Coding or programming is the process of writing computer programs or the art of writing codes, instructions and commands to solve real-life, organizational and technological problems.
Knowing how to get started and what to get started with, I believe is the first step towards knowing where to get started. There are too many programming languages one can learn, but gaining mastery requires specialisation. Here are some programming languages one can start a career with.
1. JAVA
Developed in 1995 by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, Java a high-level object-oriented language is one of the most popular programming languages particularly for client-server web applications, with a reported 9 million developers. The average Java programmer’s yearly takehome in the US is about $80K according to Glassdoor. One can take Java beginner courses on Udemy, Coursera etc
2. PHP
These days virtually all organisations, companies, as well as individuals, own and run a website. This means starting a career in PHP programming is a profitable venture. Originally designed in 1994 by Danish-Rasmus Lerdorf. Hypertext Preprocessor is a general-purpose scripting language used in web development. PHP relies on C and C++ programming languages.
Programmers that are professionals in these three languages (PHP, C and C++) can handily find a high paying job with take-home pay of up to $120k a year. Online coding sites and Youtube videos are good ways to start.
3. JAVASCRIPT
Designed in 1995 by Brenda Eich of Netscape, together with HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web. Mostly all websites use JavaScript to make web pages interactive and provide online programs, including video games. All major web browsers have an embedded JavaScript program that allows them to run on user devices.
JavaScript programmers’ salaries are about $110k a year in the US.
4. KOTLIN
More people access the internet via their mobile phones than computers. This has given a rise to mobile app development and usage. Google in 2019 announced Kotlin as its most preferred programming language for Android app development. The Android Kotlin compiler creates Java 8 bytecode by default (which runs in any later JVM).
Kotlin also supports compilation directly to JavaScript; compiling as quickly as Java and stands as a better alternative to in Android app development. Kotlin programmers’ take-home salary in the US is about $130k yearly.
5. SWIFT
Swift is one of the most important languages recently designed by Chris Lattner, Doug Gregor, John McCall, Ted Kremenek, Joe Groff, and Apple inc. Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm and compiled programming language developed for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux.
Swift programmers can earn up to $80k a year. However, some higher positions can take home up to $120k a year.
Programming Languages are springing up daily in their thousands. The rapid increase in smartphones, Personal computers, and the need to solve problems, sell to a large audience and communicate with the world has made programming a profitable endeavour.
All you need to get started is a will, a passion and a trial. The resources needed are already waiting for you to make a decision. Technology is the future, be a part of it.