6 technologies you must know for a job in IT-sector
As a software engineer, if you are beginning your career, or thinking of a change, web technology is the space to be in. Jobs here have increased sharply in recent times. And why not? The world today is functioning on computers. But if you don't have much knowledge about this field, don't worry. The following courses are enough to start you on your journey.
Two of the hottest properties right now are React JS (frontend library for Facebook) and Angular (frontend framework by Google); online inquiries for the former, after a short gap, have now reached Angular's levels, even surpassing it at times. Both are used to create advanced, highly-interactive web applications. While Upwork, YouTube, Paypal and Nike use Angular, NYT, Yahoo, Airbnb and Microsoft vouch by React.
Coursera offers a four-week course in Angular framework for those with working knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, especially ES 5. In it, you will be using Typescript to develop Angular applications. If you wish to go for React, there's another four-week course by Coursera. Pre-requisites are the same. Udemy lets you learn basics of both (along with Vue JS) through an eight-hour course.
Newbies can begin their journey through Python, which, despite its old age (it first appeared in 1990), is still widely considered the fastest-growing major programming language. Giants like Google, Instagram, YouTube and Quora use Python, which is the go-to language for many developers for machine learning, complex data analysis and visualization.
If you have no or minimum experience in programming, Coursera has a seven-week course created by the University of Michigan on the basics of Python. It is open for anyone with moderate computer knowledge. If you already have some experience with block based programming like Scratch, you can go for FutureLearn's four-week course on moving to text-based programming like Python.
Node JS is on its way to becoming the new React JS/Angular. The open-source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment, for a change, lets developers use JavaScript for server-side scripting, which was earlier limited to client-side. Top firms including Netflix, LinkedIn, Walmart, Uber and NASA use Node.js to build their primary applications. It's asynchronous, fast, and facilitates intensive data exchange, which has boosted its importance.
You can check out Coursera's four-week course on Node.js, which deals with "all things server-side." Students need to have knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, especially ES 5, to take this. Once you have learnt the basics, you can go for MongoDB's seven-week course which teaches building of applications on top of MongoDB using Node.js. Prior experience of writing software using Node.js is essential.
PHP is one the easiest languages to learn, and thorough knowledge can open doors to a wide variety of jobs. Its main use is in server-side scripting. It works well on Linux, Unix, Windows, Solaris, MAC and others, and supports most servers. More than 50% of the world's websites, especially blogging platforms, run on PHP, including Nokia, Accenture, Tesla and BitTorrent.
Coursera has an eight-week course to teach you how to build web applications in PHP, which will also include basic lessons in HTML. It will impart training on installing and using integrated PHP/MySQL environments like XAMPP or MAMP. A complementary course on SQL is also available on the same platform. With this four-week course, you will learn to create relatively advanced applications.
If you have tried and failed in other languages like Java or C#, go for Ruby on Rails, one of the easiest languages around. It helps developers to build applications quickly by abstracting and simplifying common repetitive tasks. Another feature is its focus on RESTful application design, which frames a logical structure within applications. Bloomberg, Yellow Pages, CrunchBase and Ask.fm swear by it.
Coursera's three-week course will teach you to build web applications on this framework. By the end, you should be able to build and deploy a meaningful web application to the "cloud" through a Heroku PaaS. For advanced training, you could go for Agile Development Using Ruby on Rails XSeries Program. It will be 25-weeks long, but comes with a verified certificate from UC Berkeley.
Go/GoLang is the new kid on the block. It is preferred for standalone command-line apps or scripts network and web servers. One advantage is that unlike most others like Java and Python, which were born in single-threaded environments, Go was released in 2009, when multi-core processors were already available. It is being used by Twitter, Apple, Dropbox, SoundCloud and Mozilla Firefox, among many others.
At Udemy, you'll find a comprehensive course on Go lasting 82 lectures. For this, you'll need to have a strong knowledge of another programming language. It will teach you to the basic syntax and control structures, build massively parallel systems, and build and compile projects, among others. Once you have mastered the basics, you can learn web development with Go, another course Udemy offers.
