It’s been a successful career for people who are software developers and even mobile app developers are getting the most from this job title in recent times. A mobile app developer is someone that designs, builds and manages mobile applications for different operating system platforms like Android OS, Windows and Apple’s iOS platforms. Other operating systems are Blackberry, Symbian, and Psion.
If you are planning to become a mobile app developer, then you are heading for a successful career choice. You can be a part of the team of top app development companies if you have the right skills and training as a developer.
Here are some of the things you need to know to become a mobile app developer:
Essential Training and Skills
Before you can be a mobile app developer, you need to acquire some skills and knowledge on mobile app development. You can get this knowledge by taking a degree course in computer science or even management information systems. One can also learn mobile app development by attending coding boot camp programs that are set up to train people who want to be developers to start practicing. To acquire a skill in software development and mobile app development, you need to know:
- The guidelines for a secure and stable software design
- The process of software development and lifecycle which involves develop-test-release-maintain cycle
- Some of the development methodology such as scrum, agile etc and also other app development platforms
- Programming languages especially the top most popular languages used by top app development companies such as SQL, JavaScript,
Java, C++, Python,
Ruby, PHP, iOS etc.
With this knowledge and skills, it would serve as the basis for practicing as a mobile app developer. You can also learn some of these skills by taking free and paid online courses on programming with reputable training institutions like Udemy, Havard, etc.
Choose a mobile app platform to work with:
Software development is quite different mobile app development because mobile app development uses resources like memory, storage, bandwidth, and these resources are scarce and very important to mobile platforms. Mobile app development can only occur on a mobile platform.
It is important to choose what platform that you prefer to work with. Platforms such as Android or iOS that you have interest in working with.
The following are the top app development companies for mobile development platforms:
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Appery.io
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Accelerator
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AppInstitute
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AppMachine
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AppMakr
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AppYourself
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Apple Pie
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Bizness Apps
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Como
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Dojo Mobile
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GameSalad
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Good Barber
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jQuery Mobile
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Kalypso Studio
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Kony
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LiveBlox
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Mobile Roadie
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Pega AMP
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SAP
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Sencha
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ThAppBuilder
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Verivo Software
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Xamarin (Microsoft)
It takes a lot of time to learn a mobile platform. Many of these mobile solution providers usually make a limited version for users at a very low cost or even for free so that people aspiring to be developers can learn on their platform. Many mobile platforms also give aspiring developers free study materials to enable them to understand how to use the tools available on their website. To get more information and tools, you can look at free online courses for toolsets like
jQuery.
As you practice, keep learning
It is one thing to get the basic knowledge of mobile app development and to keep growing in the dynamic world of mobile development. Even practitioners in
app development companies keep updating their knowledge by attending specialized training to know and understand new mobile development strategies. Developers can grow by learning mobile development tools and programming languages.
Also in order to build your skills, it is important to practice what you learn by doing development work. If you cannot find a job or get paid to learn as a mobile developer, there are short training programs that are practical and will keep up to speed on mobile development.
Most of these training programs run for about 8 to 12 weeks and it requires a lot of effort as well as long working hours.
When a developer learns a mobile platform, it can enable them to understand how to explore the resources around the platform.
Developers can also get useful information from developer forum communities that provide various training materials and help files to aspiring developers. These forums usually release a lot of free tools and programming languages developers can learn from. These materials provide an opportunity for the developer to learn by example.
Look out for Mobile App Development Opportunities
After you have gathered knowledge and skills on mobile app development, it is another process to put all that has been learned into real life practice. You need to know what development platform is in demand and what company offers such working platform. This would mean having to spend some time looking through job boards to know what is being offered and what areas are applicable to your interest.
By doing a survey on mobile app development opportunities, you get to know what types of opportunities are available and how much these jobs offer. You can also reach out to developer forums or communities online where you can find out what employers are like and the type of work-life balance they usually offer. As a developer, you can also find out the perks that come with the job on these online forums.
After conducting your survey on opportunities, you should be able to know your choices and the criteria for selection as well as expected salary. You should be able to know what comes with the job offers like long working hours or if it is an interesting work if the job offers other benefits and bonuses. It is only after this you can now start taking steps to apply for employment as a mobile app developer. You can choose to work for top app development companies as a mobile app developer.
To improve your chances of getting jobs as a mobile app developer, you should use an online network of friends, mentors, and acquaintances that would assist you getting interviews in any of the top app development companies.