Top career paths to pursue with coding

Coding is an asset to virtually everyone - especially in the tech industry.

A report revealed that with 6+ years of programming experience, the average annual salary amounted to £45,387, making UK developers some of the highest paid in Europe.

With advances in the digital landscape, combined with the growing number of coding roles available, it wouldn’t be surprising if you were unsure which route is right for you. e-Careers explores the options available.

Are you considering training as part of a plan to change careers? Here’s some Career Advice articles to help you get started:

• How to write a CV
• How to write a cover letter
• What should be included in your first CV?
• How to prepare for an interview
• How to follow up after an interview

Junior Developers

This is the role at the forefront of most Coders' minds. Developers often continue coding until the most senior levels, making it the perfect route for fans of technicalities and problem solving. At a junior level, it’s a job that can be acquired with 0 to 3 years’ experience and involves writing simple scripts, whilst understanding an application lifecycle alongside the databases and services used to create them.

Senior Developers

When reaching a more senior level, Coders write more complex applications, and are well experienced in every area of software. The senior level involves user analysis, designing web frames for both UX and UI and managing schedules to ensure completion before deadlines. This is the primary step on the development ladder before reaching management, being the favourable position for developers to stay in. The role also gives big thinkers a platform to jump off, should they want to become a Chief Technology Officer of a growing business or new start-up.

Mobile Application Developers

Mobile Application Developers are perhaps some of the most sought-after tech professionals. The mobile industry is currently overflowing with opportunities, with over 1,000 apps uploaded to the App Store and 30 million downloaded by consumers a day – creating a lot of room for developers to lead the cavalry towards more dynamic and progressive ideas.

Lead Architects

Sometimes referred to as 'Lead Developer', the role of an Architect is the last technical rank of the career ladder that doesn’t include management. It involves the same base skills as a Senior Developer, but requires a lot more experience. Some code is written in this role, but more often than that the workload is focussed on designing complex systems that will be implemented by developers lower down the ladder. Whilst not being a management role, the responsibilities are similar, providing guidance for Senior and Junior Developers, whilst helping to coordinate existing workload.

Programmers

Programmers lead on from the development team. Taking the program designs, they turn them into instructions that a computer can follow. It may take a degree to get to the position, but it’s a strong driving role for anyone who likes to write codes for software programs.

Big Data Engineers

This is a role that is essential to the industry. Without someone to do this job, Data Scientists wouldn’t have any data to work from – meaning professionals are extremely sought after. The work involves building, maintaining and testing solutions for big data and can even go on to creating large scale processing systems.

Data Scientist

Using the work of the Big Data Engineers, Data Scientists analyse the data to uncover important insights that can be used as a forecast for the future, influencing significant figureheads, such as blue-chip firms, with key decisions. Experience may be required with a variety of sources from the likes of click streams, social media and GPS plots, but the position gives the opportunity to lead a company into an innovative future and can be extremely rewarding.

Take your first steps

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