As our smartphones have replaced our
wallets and purses in day-to-day life and have made so many of our tasks so
much easier to perform, mobile application development is quite the in thing
today. If you are looking at starting a career as a mobile app developer, or
you are already a successful mobile app developer or consultant, this article
would still be helpful. Here’s a quick guide with helpful pointers from leading
mobile app development experts around the world – showing how you can make your
mark as a developer.
1) Education:
This goes without saying, as you cannot
start developing mobile applications without any basic education. While having
a degree in computer science is not really mandatory but it can give you the
necessary push for the field. Also, many enterprises and mobile app development
firms would prefer you having at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science
or even a course in mobile application development if they are going to hire
you as a mobile app developers.
2) Go Online:
In case you are a total novice at app
development and don’t know much about the major development platforms –
Android, Apple, Windows, Symbian and BlackBerry, don’t worry! You can start off
with various tutorials and guides available online to help you get on track
with the basics and fundamentals of coding. For example: Apple offers the iOS
Dev Center and Android offers Android Developers Training. There are tons of
resources online to learn from in both forms – free or paid to help you take
your knowledge to the next level. For example: W3Schools, Coursera, eDX and
more.
3) Sell Yourself:
Literally! Only taking classes and coding
is not the right way to launch your mobile app. Do remember, the ‘if you build
it they will come’ approach makes no sense as you have to be proactive about
developing your app and marketing your idea to ensure you get noticed. Whilst
you are in the process of earning your degree, you can choose to take classes
at either a community college or Coursera to hone your marketing skills.
Remember, marketing your app to the public is vital; otherwise your app will
remain unnoticed in a corner.
4) Get Ideas:
Not all the mobile app developers work at
developing only games. Of course, games are popular no doubt as they are a
great way to fill up on time. However, think of other business verticals too.
For starters, you need to determine where there’s a need. Maybe you could take
a look at the lives of your colleagues, family and friends and consider what
the problems they face and how your mobile app idea can help solve it. Once you
conceptualize on an idea, you can start mapping out your app ideas. For
example: you could develop an app for senior citizens to help them use public
transport with details provided on pick-up points, timings etc with fonts and
design customized to suit their needs.
5) Keep Applying:
Unless you plan to become a mobile app
developer purely as a hobby or for self-interest purposes, the next step as a
developer would be to start applying to all the leading mobile app development
companies. You can start off by finding job listings on popular job portals
like Indeed, Shine, Yahoo and Monster and with sufficient amount of research
you can also search the websites of major mobile app development companies to
find the suitable jobs. A quick tip to get exactly what you’re looking for is
to think about the apps you would love to work on and check their mobile app
development team. Those are exactly the places you would love to apply to as
you already share a passion for what they do.
Thus, from the above
you can easily get on the mobile app development league and become a successful
app developer. Good luck!
