Professional software development rarely succeeds at the proper level without an effective distribution of responsibilities between diversified specialists. Recently, given the latest combination of front-end development and design, the back-end development has experienced a real flowering. There are many new development tools, frameworks and even programming languages that greatly facilitate the development of full-format platforms and expand the developer’s arsenal.
In recent years, rising salaries for backend developers and slow growth in skill requirements have led to an increase in the number of subject matter specialists in the field. Profession remains one of the most demanded on the high-quality software development market, thus being necessary both for website development and mobile development – multi-level integrated platforms also cannot do without a backend.
Career prospects
It is worth noting that the qualification requirements for backend developers include the need for knowledge of at least one programming language at a high level. In addition, fairly broad knowledge of mathematics, relevant frameworks and development environments are mandatory. The qualification is relatively difficult, but if a specialist decides to go programming, it is recommended to go to the backend development.
With a proper attitude to learning, growth to senior development will take about 2 years. During this time, you will get yourself a pet project, have time to complete several freelance projects and decide on the future direction of development, and even your preferred place of work. The path to the lead developer will take about 5 years, while he will curb all aspects of the profession and be able to professionally develop high-quality products by participating in brainstorms of top-level companies.
There are two further development paths. The first is to deepen the knowledge of software development, which increases the level of specialization, and the developer can use his skills in more projects. Another way is to go into management and engage in the preparation of colleagues and the management of active projects.
Prospects for development in the context of universal automation
Automation and robotics are gradually coming into an increasing number of development areas, leaving thousands of specialists without work every year. However, this does not affect back-end development in the least, because almost all new frameworks in the software development market, web development or mobile development are related to page construction and design improvement. Nobody touches the development code itself, so lately front-end and even design specialists were “absent” – took back some years to master their back-end side, to improve salaries and career prospects in future.
Even considering the most formidable forecasts for the coming decades, the backend is practically in no danger. Highly qualified specialists will still be in high demand in the market and their work will be paid in due measure.
What skills should a backend developer have?
The main value of a backend developer is the opportunity to learn the hard skills of development and their gradual mastering. Among the most in-demand skills, it is important to note the following:
- Knowledge of 2-3 programming languages at least. A high-class specialist must regularly improve the skill set, and expanding the possibilities of programming in several languages is a key aspect of improvement. The most popular languages today are C#, Javascript, Python, SQL. They are similar in their basic development methods, so once you master one, it will be much easier to learn the others;
- Complex design of systems consisting of several components. The skill of assembling entire architectures from components guarantees wide career prospects – a developer will be more flexible in applying an individual skill set if he is familiar with popular designers;
- Code testing. Today, the profession of a tester has taken its rightful place among developers. Basic software testing skills are recommended for all professionals – and the backend is one of the first positions here. The ability to validate a critical work node before integrating into the final architecture ensures success at any level of career development;
- Documentation skills. Development standards change quite quickly, and timely study of the relevant documentation provides an opportunity to stay on the crest of the wave of development of programming technologies. You can read about recent healthcare mvp app development demandings via the link.
Verdict
A backend developer is one of the most in-demand jobs 20 years ago and still is today. Thanks to the almost unchanged requirements for a specialist during this time, and also taking into account the growth in the level of development comfort – new services and development environments increase the speed of creating unique architectures at times – a backend developer is a kind of elite among programmers.
Career requirements are high, but comprehensible, and the current stages of development of programming languages are largely oriented precisely towards the backend. If you want to become a real programmer – go to the backend, it’s worth it.