Guide for an ultimate Tech Career

Are you preparing for an exceptional career in the field of Software Development? Here, Vivekanand Vivek helps you to answer the most fundamental questions — what skills are required, how to prepare and why to do all this at the first place?

What skills are required for beginning a Tech Career?

For beginning a career in Software Development, it becomes imperative for one to know about the basic nitty-gritty of the field. A software developer’s role can be easily understood by dividing it into three parts —

Computational Thinking

It involves mathematical and logical thinking and comprises of -

• Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA):— Mastering DSA increases your problem-solving skills, it gives a better perception of problems and helps in interviews, wherein you have to think through multiple approaches, analyse and pick the best approach for a particular problem.
  All the high-level concepts in Computer Science including DBMS, OS and System Design are somewhere hinged around DSA. For example, One can define a whole Database as a special kind of data structure like a Binary Index Tree that is used in making Databases. You can also master Data Structures and Algorithms with us and solve 600+ Problems at Renaissance.
• Maths — Maths is an integral part of computational thinking as it helps you achieve depth in understanding the logical part of any data structure or algorithm. For example, one might have to apply the concepts of permutations and combinations while dealing with problems on Bit Manipulation, Dynamic programming etc.
• Corner Case Thinking — It’s very important to handle corner cases in order to ship a bug-free production code. So, one must learn how to prove correctness of their approach/algorithm and write a code that works on universal test cases rather than formulating logic based on some random sample of tests.

System Thinking

Compared to Computational Thinking it is more focused on the application part and consist of several high-level concepts of computer science.

• Low-Level Design — Low-level design skills are indispensable since the beginning of your journey as a fresher in software roles. It simply means how clean, legible and comprehendible your code is. A good code incorporates all the appropriate low-level design principles.
• High-Level Design and Computer Science Fundamentals (OS, DBMS, Computer Networks) — Apart from high-level design, there are some computer science fundamentals that you must know to be a good software developer. These fundamentals include — Operating Systems, DBMS and Computer Networks.
• Client, Servers and Load balancers — An accomplished software developer should know about client-server model, concept of load-balancers, reverse-proxies, scaling mechanisms in order to be able to think of system that works at large scale.
• Distributed Systems — These days, cloud based systems are almost everywhere. So it becomes important to understand the motivation behind distributed systems like distributed databases, distributed file-systems etc and the nuances associated with them.

Design Thinking: Understanding your Users

• As a software developer it is your responsibility to ensure that your application/website is loved by the users. Accordingly, it becomes crucial to understand your users and their behaviour to create a product that is admired by all. Apart from technical roles, design thinking is also vital for Product leads, Front-end developers and UI/UX designers.

HOW?

• Depth of Understanding — To gain depth of understanding it becomes essential to give time to think about the topics. For example, so often people do not know but Binary search can also be used to solve tricky problems of unsorted arrays and strings.
• Practice assorted problems — Earlier problems based on DP on trees and bitmasks were rare but quite recently they have come into popularity. Technologies are changing and people are upskilling themselves accordingly. Therefore it is important to give time to practise problems to keep yourself updated with the trend.
• Pattern recognition and mapping abilities — A lot of problems asked in interviews are of a similar nature. A good candidate should be able to recognise the pattern and think of an answer.
• Occasional mentorship — Not only in tech but mentorship is helpful in almost every sphere of life. If possible, find out a mentor to help you out with your specific needs. A good mentor is someone who understands your problems and provides you with the right feedback on a timely basis.
• Learning and encouraging community — It takes a hefty amount of time and hard work to become a proficient software developer and that road can be tough with constant challenges. It is when a community of learners comes to the rescue. Learning with a group of like-minded people saves you from boredom and keeps you motivated for a longer-term. In the process, you may also make life-long friends and learn various approaches to the same problem.

WHY?

• At the end of the day, everything is a problem — This is where your practice of problems based on data structure and algorithms comes into use. Though it may not directly help you but during the practice phase you shall develop a problem-solving mindset.
• It helps you become a robust and adaptive engineer — In the current fast-paced world where technology is changing every moment, your problem-solving skills are more valued than your knowledge of the ever changing tech-stack. Suppose your company moves to a different tech stack, you can still adapt if you are a good problem solver and know the logic behind the working of systems.
• Bright personal career — Currently technical jobs are one of the most sought-after and high paying jobs in the industry. Making a career in the technical field gives promises of a bright future. Apart from this, in case you wish to switch to UI/UX or for some other role, then your technical knowledge gives you an extra edge compared to the other candidates.

If you are preparing for getting into Tech Roles at Product Based Companies, you must spend time solving problems with Data Structures and Algorithms, System Design, Computer Science Fundamentals and Low Level Design. We at Programming Pathshala, have created a comprehensive program, Renaissance, which helps you to dive deep into these subjects and be an incredible engineer. Learn more about Renaissance here.

This article is contributed by Vivekanand Vivek, Co-founder of Programming Pathshala.