Coding is the most important skill for a career in development or data science. Development jobs can be split into web development and software development, which can also be combined at small startups. Data science jobs are broken down into multiple categories including data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Software Engineers and Web Developers use coding to create web applications, websites, and desktop software. These are high-level positions that work with the whole stack and understand all of the major principles of engineering and web development.
Websites are built from multiple different technologies which are usually referred to as a stack. A stack is essentially the layers of technology that make up a website or web application. Within web development and software engineering, coders can find more specific positions that specialize in only the front end or the back end of the tech stack. Full Stack Developers work with the entire tech stack, front end to back end.
A Product Manager or Software Project Manager usually oversees the projects that developers work on. Because they’re overseeing complex projects, they need to know how to code along with their management skills.
It takes more than simply knowing how to code to get a job in development or engineering, but coding is where you need to start for these career paths. While you learn how to code, you’ll learn best practices through experience. Coding is the foundation for any job in this field.
There are three main categories of jobs for developers: front end (the part that users interact with), back end (which powers the front end), and mobile development (which is the creation of applications for mobile devices).
Back End Developers use coding to build the back end of the website, which powers the front end. They connect the front end technologies to the back end, tell the website how to communicate with servers and other external components, and implement security measures. The back end is usually built with Java, Python, or Ruby alongside SQL.
Front End Developers code the front end of the website which is the part that users interact with. They typically code in JavaScript, and sometimes Python or .NET.
.NET Developers can code both the back end and the front end of websites in the Microsoft framework, .NET. VB.NET is combined with the language C# to build the front and ASP.NET is the back end framework.
There are specialized jobs for each of these languages and pieces of the tech stack. You’ll find that with practice and experience, you’ll probably have a favorite aspect of coding that you want to specialize in.
Coding is also utilized by data science professionals. Data Scientists and Data Analysts utilize coding to access data stored in a database and to use frameworks for languages like Python or R to efficiently analyze that data. A Machine Learning Engineer codes and deploys complex, large-scale products that train a computer to recognize patterns or analyze data on their own.
