One of the best ways to prepare for this career is to learn how to code. Programming languages that are frequently used by full stack developers include front-end languages such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript and back-end languages such as Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, and Node.js. The following online learning platforms offer free or low-cost classes in coding: Code Cademy (https://www.codecademy.com), edX (https://www.edx.org), Coursera (https://www.coursera.org), and Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org). Your high school computer science department also probably offers coding classes.
Participate in computer science, software development, and other IT-related summer exploration programs that are offered by colleges and universities, high schools, and park districts.
Get involved in programming, artificial intelligence, and related competitions for high school, students, college students, and professionals to test your skills against others and have some fun. Artificial intelligence is technology that can be programmed to perform functions and tasks in a “smart” manner that mimics and learns from human decision-making processes. Here are two competitions to check out:
- World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth: https://www.waicy.org
- Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com
Other ways to explore this career include talking to your computer science teacher or a full stack developer about educational and career opportunities in the field, job shadowing a developer, and reading books and watching videos (YouTube.com is a good source) about the field.
- 3-D Printing Specialists
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