Programming is a field that's taking hold of the world. With businesses growing and digitalization happening at a breakneck speed, programming has become an essential part of business development and management.

While programming is a highly valued opportunity, it's not easy to code in all languages. Java is one of the easiest programming platforms which gives opportunities for young people to deliver the value of their work in a simple way.

But, it's a long path to walk when it comes to programming. One needs to develop technical skills along with soft skills to succeed as a Java programmer. This is because there's a lot of brain work and dedication involved. But there's nothing hard work can't pay off.

To convince you better let’s have a look at some of the reasons why you should consider initiating your journey as a Java Developer, and the technical skills to be needed for this. Delving into this issue one should never neglect platforms for learning Java online as they suggest practicing from scratch to become a professional and deal with Java basics in a nick of time. Let's go!

Reasons to Learn Java

Java is a fairly popular programming language, but not the only one. A very natural question can strike you: why should I learn Java? Why do I need it?

Let us try to understand what it is that makes Java so popular and compelling?

1. Inflated Demand

Java is a programming language that has been in demand since it was first created. The following are the major reasons why Java is a hot cake in the programming world:

1. It has been consistent for years with its level of understandability and beginner friendliness.

2. It is quite easy to learn because it is a comparatively high-level language, which doesn't require you to drown deep into the hardware as low-level languages do.

3. Java is a language that has its filaments in almost all aspects of career streams. From big enterprises dealing with server-side apps, to android applications, the internet of things, and big data technologies, Java is used in every field. This gives you a lot of opportunities if you're fluent in this language.

4. Companies like Netflix, Uber, Google, Instagram, Spotify, LinkedIn, etc make use of Java technologies. Having command of Java can give you a chance to directly be a part of one of these multinationals.

5. Java is very popular because of its capability to solve real-time problems more effectively than any other programming language. The main reason is the “just-in-time” compiler that Java supports. With the JIT, the compiling is quick, and thus the code executes quickly.

6. Java has a community that connects you to an immense group of people. So if you have any problem learning Java, you can get help globally. This community is not only vast but also dynamic.

2. Good Salary

A Java developer has to work on projects of all sizes. From creating a pet project for Android to working in a moderately functioning company and being a part of a CRM product firm to develop products for a multinational.

There are so many potential perspectives for Java developers including huge opportunities, an attractive pay scale, and a good value for the work you do. A Java developer in the USA earns $93,118 annually on average according to the reports from Glassdoor.

3. Cross-Platform Programming Language

Once you've coded down your program on Java, it gets converted into Java bytecode. This makes Java independent of a certain platform. The bytecode created can be easily comprehended by JVM, which should be installed before you start working with Java.

The ability of a Java program to run on any platform without portability issues is what makes it a versatile and cross-platform programming language. Due to this feature, Java programs can run on mobile applications, PC and the internet of things too.

Key Skills For A Java Developer

Now that you've decided to become a Java developer, it is your turn to see what skills would be required to succeed. It's not an effortless task. It needs patience, practice, and continuous dedication. Besides that, skills do really matter.

There are two types of skills of the utmost importance for a Java developer, which include technical and soft skills.

Technical Skills

Technical skills involve the ones that would be required at the backend to create Java-driven products.

1. Core Java

   This refers to foundational concepts of Java as a programming language.

   Java Syntax: You can consider it almost like the ABC of Java. It includes:

   1. Classes, variables, methods
   2. Primitive data types, Strings
   3. Operators
   4. Loops & branches

   OOP: Object-oriented programming is different from the typical procedural way of programming. The main concepts covered here include classes, class inheritance, interface, data abstraction, encapsulation of the data, polymorphism, and virtual methods.

   Collections: These are the group of individual objects represented as a single unit. Collections are based on different data structures like list, set, map, queue, linked list, array, etc. There can be initial difficulty while working with a collection framework but with consistent practice, it's easy to implement.

   Streams: Streams are a mechanism that Java uses to perform its input and output operations. It literally refers to continually flowing data. The main topics include byte streams, character streams, standard streams.

   Multithreading and Synchronization: This is considered to be the most complex Java core topic for a beginner. Any novice is supposed to encounter some amount of adversity in understanding this topic but once they're into it, they start to understand this technology much better.

   Some principles of Java programming can be a little difficult to understand but once you get into the practice, you will nail it. If you use CodeGym for learning Java online you get enough practice to develop an understanding of the core concepts and start coding.

2. Spring Framework

   Spring framework is one of the widely used frameworks by Java developers.

   • Spring Boot: Spring Boot is an open-source Java-based framework used to create microservices that can just execute across any platform.

   • Spring MVC:It is a Java-based framework used to build web applications and follows a Model-View-Controller architecture.

   • Spring Clouds: It is a framework used to develop robust cloud applications quickly.

3. Testing Tools

   Testing is an important part of any product development /software building process. Java utilizes the following frameworks for testing you should be aware of:

   • JUnit: It is a unit testing framework for Java. It has been playing a very important role in the development of test-driven Java products and is a member of the family of unit testing frameworks.

   • Mockito: Mockito is a Java-based mocking framework for Java-based products, exclusively used as a unit testing method. Mockito eases out the development of tests for the classes in isolation in Java code.

4. APIs & Libraries

   Application programming interface or API is a document that lists out to us all the packages, classes, and interfaces along with the required fields and methods. Developers need to learn about APIs so that they could know how to use the methods and interfaces provided by them.

   Libraries are collections of classes that have been drafted by someone else and you use them directly for simplification of your code. For eg: Log4j is the most popular logging library.

5. JVM Internals

   Java Virtual Machine will enable your system to run Java programs. It's important to learn how JVM internally works to be able to understand how Java programs are architecturally processed.

6. Design & Architectural Patterns

   Design and architectural designs are well-proven solutions for specific tasks or problems. Understanding the architectural patterns will help you develop the core logic of your Java applications.

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7. DevOps Tools

   DevOps tools are used to improve the quality of the programmed code and to simplify the deployment. It should be included in the entire programming lifecycle starting from code review, building and testing code from version control, and finally deployment of ready-to-use products. Some of the widely used DevOps tools are Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes.

8. IntelliJ Idea

   IntelliJ IDEA is an integrated development environment that is used to make JVM-oriented languages maximize their user-friendliness and productivity.

9. Hibernate

   Hibernate is an open-source object-relational lightweight mapper solution that is used to overcome the shortcomings that we face while using JDBC. It is used to develop objects that are independent of database software.

10. Git

    Git is an open-source distributed version control system used for managing codes and programs for all kinds of projects easily and efficiently. It is crucial to understand how Git works since it is a great version control tool.

11. SQL & Databases

    The knowledge of SQLs and database is used to connect the Java applications with the database. It is done to create websites and web applications in a more dynamically efficient manner. Hence, without the knowledge of SQL and databases, you won’t be able to establish a connection between the frontend and the backend of your applications.

12. Web Services

    Web services are a type of technology used for communicating one programming language to another. REST, Big JAX-WS, JAX-RS are the three major types of web services that you should be aware of.

13. Web/App Server

    Tomcat and JBoss are two widely accepted web/app servers for Java. Web servers are used to develop web/app applications in Java easily.

14. HTML, CSS & JavaScript

    It is always useful to know the basics of front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Soft Skills

There are also some nontechnical skills required to be a developer and work in a company. Skills like proper communication, being open to learning new things, dedicated team working, following work ethics during your tenure as a developer and interpersonal skills play an important role in deciding how radiantly you'll succeed as a developer.

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Conclusion

Every person has a different reason to become a developer. You need to choose yours and move forward. You have to keep on reminding yourself why you started in the first place. And while it's important to take care of technical skills, soft skills are just as important.

Knowing this, we hope you make the best use of resources and rule the software world!

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