Software development guidance

Hello guys,

Firstly, I hope I am not posting in a wrong place. Feel free to move my thread somewhere else if you consider doing so :slight_smile:

I am a 23 year old guy, just graduated Computer Science, avid to expand my knowledge base in this field. I am very interested in mobile development, Android development to be more precise. Besides being passionate about this field and having a strong belief that this is the future of software development, I also have some ideas of apps which I think they could become successful.

Even though I have a diploma in software development, unfortunately the educational system in my country is really really poor. So what we learnt during university is either old, or unnecessary or both (of course I am a bit exaggerating, there were also interesting and useful courses, but very few, and none about mobile development).

So why I am writing this to you ? Well, I am looking for some guidance, specific guidance, in this journey I want to start. I need to learn a lot of things, things which you would probably see as basic knowledge which I should have known after 4 years of university. Unfortunately, some websites or advice like “read about that” won’t help very much. I am seeking for specific guidance, if someone is keen to offer it to me.

I need to review my knowledge about OOP (we’ve only studied OOP in C++, which isn’t very cool, and a very short course of Java). I want to learn about design patterns and modern database programming. Or other basic but important topics that you could recommend to me. After I accumulate some solid knowledge about these things, and other things that you consider important for any good programmer to know, I need to start learning Android development and any other things which would be very important and go hand in hand with Android development.

To give some extra information, I have access to a standard Pluralsight subscription, I have the C# 4.0 Complete Reference and Java Complete Reference from Herbert Schild. I also have some little experience with developing Windows Forms apps in C#.

With the risk of repeating myself, I seek for some specific advice, like “read this book about this subject”, “watch this tutorial about this subject” etc.

I thank you all in advance !

Have a nice day !

Hello there!

I recently (this spring) graduated from university with a masters degree in computer science, specifically software development.
I started early this year by developing some apps for fun as side projects with my studies. My first app was published a couple of months before I finished school, and now I am already making a living with app development.
I would even go as far as to say that I am making more money from apps now than I would be making if I found a job with my degree.

In my opinion, if you want to start any sort of software development, you should master an object oriented programming language, for instance Java, and not crap languages like C++. I believe that if you master Java, you will understand basic principles in all aspects of programming and development. Even though Java is not directly applicable to databases or design patterns, the basic principles of software development will be more easily understood as you have knowledge about “talking with computers”, which is basically what programming is.

I personally learned Java years ago while getting my bachelors degree, and this was primarily not while attending the Java lectures. I learned by myself following simple video tutorials (mostly from thenewboston, google it).

Have patience, Master Java, profit.

Just my two cents :slight_smile:

I studied programming for a few years in the early 2000’s, but most of what I learned back then is probably out of date. Besides, I haven’t written a program in years.

Java is a great language to learn and program in but since you already have experience in C#, I’ll recommend developing apps with Xamarin instead. Xamarin lets you write native apps in C# that will run on all three platforms: Android, iOS and Windows. You’ll be able to reuse as much as 70% percent of your code base and that’s a huge saving in terms of time.

One app, three income sources. Now, who wouldn’t want that! Check out Xamarin.com for more info.