Career Advice
What Does a Mobile Developer Do and How Do You Become One?
Joe Wiggins
Joe Wiggins, Author & Career Expert at Glassdoor | 29 Sept 2016
With University fees set to rise next year to over £9,000 per year, cost is now a major factor in the decision over whether or not to study for a Bachelors degree. If you do not want to go to University for whatever reason, and you are interested in tech, then Mobile Developer is one of the highest paying jobs that does not require a university degree.
A Mobile Developer Salary is an average of £30,200, but could be as high as £54,000.
Job Description: Mobile developers create mobile apps, writing code, testing and fixing bugs. While they can come from different walks of life, such as software engineers, web designers or tech-savvy entrepreneurs, they often have a background in computer programming.
At busuu, the world's largest social network for language learning, mobile developers are called “mobile engineers”. This is a subtle change that reflects how busuu thinks about technology, where engineers are empowered to think about the solution as a whole rather than simply the implementation, taking into account scalability, practicality, and architecture. busuu CTO, Rob Elkin, describes how mobile engineers get into their job: “There are very few courses in higher education to help you become a mobile developer or mobile engineer. Some start out as computer scientists but others have come from completely different fields with huge variation in the amount of formal training. We have engineers with backgrounds in music, design, and traditional engineering as well as computer science, and those with no formal qualifications who are amazing self learners.”
[Related: Glassdoor Employee Spotlight: Calvin Park, Senior Android Engineer.]
Commenting on the special qualities that busuu looks for in a mobile engineer, Rob says, “Above all, we look for candidates with passion and a deep interest in a specific platform, be that iOS or Android. Being a specialist in a particular platform has distinct advantages, but we don’t put much emphasis on formal training and certainly not on undergraduate degrees. We’re looking for smart people who are autonomous, work well in a team, and want to build a great product.”
busuu iOS engineer, James Milton, describes how he ended up where he is today: "I got into iOS development when I was at home one day and had an idea for an iPad app. I quickly realised it was going to be a bigger task than I originally thought, so I went and got a book on Objective-C and took it from there. I made quite a few simple apps at first, things like balls bouncing around the screen and basic audio players. I loved being able to turn my ideas into reality with code, so that’s what got me hooked and kept me going!
“After a year of reading books and Stack Overflow (a Q&A site for programmers), I made and released my first app. The second followed within six months. After this, I started applying for junior roles at various London companies, eventually landing a job at a big agency. They made commercial apps for the likes of Vodafone and Npower, so I was working on big projects.
“The following two years were spent learning from my seniors and gaining an understanding of the engineering work culture. Following that I got a job as a sole developer for a small startup. This was a great experience as it forced me to stand on my own two feet and not rely on other people, but after 18 months I was ready work with more experienced engineers in my field.
“Now I'm working at busuu with an awesome team of engineers and designers and am loving every second of it!”
Milton’s advice for any budding mobile developers or engineers is:
- Pay attention to your seniors and don't be scared of criticism.
- Expect to be wrong a lot! You're gonna get frustrated, so accept it and try and minimise it!
- Never stop learning: look at other languages and platforms.
- Have a clear goal in mind when you first start, as it helps to focus your research and learning efforts.
- Read lots of good engineers code
Joe Wiggins
Joe Wiggins, is an expert career author for the Glassdoor Blog. Read about Joe Wiggins' experience and latest published articles on their author profile.
