Which mobile apps are your favorite? Do you play Words with Friends? Are you expanding your town in No Zombies Allowed? Have you ever used the Flashlight app to find your way in the dark? All of these apps were designed by Mobile App Developers, a growing career that allows you to combine creativity with computer skills. Apple has sold over 1 billion apps, and made over $1.7 billion (yes, BILLION) in app sales in 2010. There are many different categories of apps and some Mobile App Developers specialize in certain areas, like medical apps or business apps. You could even combine your love of music with skills in app design to design a new version of GarageBand or Spotify.
Career Preparation:
In high school—be well-rounded. App Developers need to have writing skills, artistic abilities and computer skills. Take classes in English, art, marketing and business, as well as plenty of technology classes (especially those that teach you about programming) and of course, math and science.
Education needed—at least a Bachelor’s Degree
In college, you should major in—Computer Science or Information Technology
College Options:
Christopher Newport University offers a degree in Computer Science with classes such as “Multimedia and Web Publishing” listed. In Radford University’s Information Technology major, you can take classes like “Software Engineering”, “Computer Graphics” and “Introduction to Game Development”.
Career Possibilities:
You could work for a software company, developing applications, or working on the systems that run the applications. The median pay for a Software Developer was $90,530/year in 2010. Career opportunities in this field are expected to grow by leaps and bounds!
Some interesting articles about Mobile App Development:
Read about this growing industry.
Hear from a Senior Mobile Engineer about what this career is like.
Here are some tips on how to become an App Developer.
Here are some interesting videos about Mobile App Development
See the Facebook Mobile App Hackathon that was held—teams competed for a $20,000 prize.
Watch this to check out the stories of some mobile app Developers. And remember, mobile apps are more than just games!
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