Is Java enough to get a Job?
Yes, gaining excellent skills in Java is enough to get a job, being a highly skilled Java developer opens up many doors of opportunities. You will be able to work on server-side applications, Android apps, web development, machine learning, desktop app development, and more using Java.
You also need to be familiar with Data structures, and Algorithms to increase your chances of getting a job, especially in big tech companies. Having a portfolio of your Java projects will also be helpful to attract the attention of employers.
Java is a general-purpose programming language, this means that you can use Java to create different types of programs. Java is designed to let programmers write once, and run anywhere.
Java is one of the most popular programming languages in the enterprise world. It constantly ranks among some of the most commonly used programming languages. According to a Stack Overflow survey of 2022, Java is the 6th most commonly used programming language.
According to Oracle, the company that owns Java, Java was used by more than 10 million developers worldwide in 2015 and it runs on 13 billion devices.
This means that there are thousands of companies that use Java for a variety of programs. Java is used by many companies such as Google, NASA, Capital One, Uber, LinkedIn, eBay, Amazon, Airbnb, Meta platforms, and many others.
These companies and many others provide a lot of employment opportunities for many Java developers to work on a variety of projects.
Having a solid Java programming understanding opens up windows of opportunities to work on world-class projects in different fields. Here are some of the opportunities and the types of jobs you can apply for if you have excellent Java skills.
BACKEND APPLICATION DEVELOPER
Java is one of the most popularly used programming languages for server-side or backend application development. You can get a job as a backend app developer using Java.
As a backend app developer, you can build cloud-based applications, work on big data projects, distributed systems, and more.
According to indeed.com, The average salary for a java developer is $104,777 per year in the United States.
ANDROID APP DEVELOPER
Java is one of the most popular languages for Android app development. You can use Java and Android Studio to make apps for Android, Wear OS, Android TV, Chrome OS devices, Android for cars, Android things, etc.
Being able to show exceptional android development skills will open up many opportunities to work for companies that use Java for native android app development. These companies include Oracle, Microsoft, Spotify, Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, and many others.
WEB DEVELOPER
You can become a web developer and get a job as a full-stack web developer using Java. Java is used widely in web development, especially on the server side. web applications developed with Java are known to be performant, robust, and secure.
There are many technologies that you can use to get a Job as a Java web developer. These technologies are implemented to make web development with Java easy and seamless. Here are some of them:
- SERVLET API: Servlet technology is used to create a web application on the server and generate a dynamic web page.
- JAVASERVER PAGES (JSP): Java Server Pages is a server-side programming technology that enables the rapid development of web-based applications. JavaServer Pages embed Java code in an HTML page by using the special delimiters <% and %>
- JAVA DATABASE CONNECTIVITY (JDBC): JDBC is a Java API used to connect and execute the query with the database. It is a part of Java Standard Edition. JDBC API uses JDBC drivers to connect with the database
- JAVA PERSISTENCE API (JPA): The Java Persistence API provides Java developers with an object/relational mapping facility for managing relational data in Java applications. It is used to persist data between Java objects and relational databases.
You can also use Java web frameworks to make your work easy. Some of the most popular web frameworks include the Spring Framework, Play Framework, Structs, Hibernate, and Grails.
These are some of the technologies that you can use to build Java web applications, using Spring to develop web applications is one of the most popular and easy approaches that most developers use.
MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER
You can also get a job as a machine learning engineer using Java. Java has a lot of resources and libraries that you can use for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Here are some of the popular ones.
- APACHE MAHOUT
- ADAMS
- JAVA-ML
- APACHE OPENNLP
- DEEPLEARNING4J
- RAPIDMINER
- WEKA
- MALLET
- SPARK MLLIB
- DEEP JAVA LIBRARY (DJL)
- JSAT
- ENCOG MACHINE LEARNING FRAMEWORK
- JAVAML
- MASSIVE ONLINE ANALYSIS (MOA)
- and many others.
These Java libraries can be used for neural networks, deep learning, data processing, clustering, classification, linear regression, data manipulation, natural language processing, data visualization, and many other tasks. This opens up more job opportunities for Java developers.
CONCLUSION
It can be seen that there are a lot of opportunities in different fields for Java developers. Java allows you to work on a wide array of projects. Ultimately, Java is enough to get a Job in many tech companies, as long as you can invest your time in enhancing your development skills.
As you develop your technical skills, you should also work on developing your soft skills such as communication, teamwork, organizational, time management, decision-making, critical thinking, etc.
You must also invest time to learn Data structures and Algorithms. Most, if not all major tech companies require a good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
