The Future of Mobile Development Jobs

Author

Artur Meyster is the CTO of Career Karma (YC W19), an online marketplace that matches career switchers with job training programs. After graduating from a coding bootcamp, Hack Reactor, he joined Funding Circle as a full stack software engineer. This led him to start the Breaking Into Startups podcast featuring people with non-traditional backgrounds who broke into tech which reached over 3 million people. In 2019, Artur was one of the first bootcamp grads to graduate from Ycombinator, a startup accelerator that helps companies scale to millions of users.

Do you want to hear something interesting? The smartphone you own, perhaps the device you are using to read this article, is ten times more powerful than the first IBM computer. That means that you have an incredibly advanced computer on your hands. You can create documents and spreadsheets, record and edit high-definition videos, and connect with your friends and family worldwide through a ton of different platforms and mediums. The future is definitely here, and the future is definitely in mobile development.

Mobile Development

You might be wondering what exactly is mobile development, and who are the tech professionals called Mobile Developers. Mobile development is the process of designing, building and maintaining the applications that are created specifically for mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and even mobile-powered laptop computers like Chromebooks. Those in charge of designing and programming these mobile apps are called Mobile Developers. There are two main types of Mobile Developers: iOS and Android developers.

Android Development​

Android Developers program the apps used on Android-powered mobile devices. This includes devices manufactured by Samsung, LG, Motorola, Amazon’s Kindle, and all versions of the Google Chromebook. Essentially, Android powers all non-Apple mobile devices.
As Android Developers build the apps used on most mobile devices, they are in high demand. According to ZipRecruiter, Android Developers make an average annual salary of $112,000 per year, so this is one of the most lucrative jobs in the tech industry.

iOS development
 
iOS developers are the other main type of Mobile Developers. They build all the mobile apps designed specifically for Apple-made mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads. iOS developers use a programming environment built specifically for iOS development called Xcode. iOS Developers use the programming language Swift.

According to ZipRecruiter, entry-level iOS developers make an average annual salary of $81,000, with more senior developers earning over $120,000. This makes iOS development a very lucrative career.
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If you are wondering how to become a mobile developer, you first need to start by learning some coding skills. 


Coding Bootcamps

Coding bootcamps are quickly replacing the traditional tech education institutions of four-year universities and two-year community colleges. Coding bootcamps are short trade schools for coding. On average, students finish their program in just two or three months, with most finding employment immediately after graduation. Some grads even find their tech industry landing spot during the bootcamp.

Coding schools like App Academy that offer bootcamps also host networking events on campus to help students connect with potential employers. These networking events are also held online, making it possible for remote bootcamp students to connect with classmates, instructors, and potential employers from the comfort of their homes.

Many coding schools offer a popular financing option known as an income-sharing agreement (ISA). With ISAs, the student can attend the bootcamp without making any payments upfront. Instead, the student pays back tuition once they graduate and land their first programming job. The repayment is done through monthly installments based on salary, so it is in the schools’ best interest to produce highly marketable programmers that can land the best jobs.

ISAs help to keep coding schools accountable. If the coding bootcamp does not prove to be a profitable investment, the student suffers and so does the school. A traditional student loan works as a means for the student to invest in themselves with no guarantee that their investment will actually produce their desired result—a job. Instead, an ISA is like an investment made by the coding school into their own students, so it makes sense for them to ensure the best possible outcome for the bootcamp grads: a legitimate programming job paying a good salary.