Learning to code unlocks so many opportunities that understanding which job route to focus on can be both exciting and overwhelming. There are a multitude of software engineering career paths to apply your programming skills to, and they each focus on different specialties.

Here are four interesting routes to apply your skills after graduating from a programming bootcamp like Momentum:

Technical Support Engineer

If you are a stellar communicator and have patience for resolving issues, Technical Support Engineer could be a great position for you. Technical Support Engineers are customer service specialists with advanced technical skills. They work with customers via email/video/phone/live chat to help remedy any problems they are experiencing.

As a Technical Support Engineer, you troubleshoot systems to identify causes of malfunctions and assist in developing ways to combat repeated errors in the future. Filing bug reports, being diligent in documenting complaints, tracking customer history logs, and sending support requests are other functions of this position.  Understanding version control systems such as Git or GitHub is important technical knowledge to possess for this job. And if you are good at prioritizing tasks and remaining collected and persistent when working through a challenge, you have the major soft skills needed for this role.

DevOps Engineer

If you are a master of streamlining processes, the role of Development and Operations Engineer (DevOps for short) may be your perfect fit. To understand a DevOps Engineer’s position, first you should have an idea of DevOps itself, which is a way of structuring an organization that hinges on Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD); CI/CD deviates from traditional development methodologies where one stage follows another in a linear fashion by instead focusing on running stages at the same time in a cyclical manner. When implemented correctly, DevOps allows organizations to deploy software changes constantly without any action on users’ parts, enabling more quick product update releases and greater automation and efficiency of internal processes.

A DevOps Engineer has an array of responsibilities to ensure that IT infrastructure is functioning harmoniously. They introduce tools and methodologies that balance business needs throughout the software development lifecycle, coordinating coding, deployment, maintenance, and updates. As a DevOps Engineer, you must also be great with interpersonal skills and project management, facilitating cooperation between teams with different responsibilities so they can achieve performance goals and everything runs smoothly.

Other responsibilities include overseeing code releases or deployments, writing code to automate tasks or build plugins to improve tools, and running performance testing and benchmarking. Seeing the big picture as a DevOps Engineer is essential, so you can identify areas for improvement, work to devise a solution, and carry out that plan across varied teams-you get to be involved in so many facets of an agile organization!

Junior Data Analyst/Data Scientist

If data makes your heart sing, Data Scientist could be your dream among software engineering career paths. In this role, data scientists- to no surprise-study and evaluate data. They examine issues with networks to devise solutions and help solve complicated computing problems. They also can evaluate the functionality of current software in order to make informed, technical recommendations to IT departments as well as help develop new systems and machine learning models.

Once you’ve completed a coding bootcamp and decided that Data Scientist is the career you would like to pursue, you are likely to enter this field as a Junior Data Analyst. Python and some experience with visualization tools is needed for this entry level position. Instead of creating new systems and presenting data-backed findings, you will have more involvement with raw data; cleaning data, recognizing trends, researching, and creating visuals are your main responsibilities. If you are a critical thinker, good at communication, and meticulous in sifting through data to craft insights, then you would be a great Junior Data Analyst that can help inform Data Scientists’ suggestions on how companies can best operate. These professionals are desirable in the modern business world, as the need for the skillsets of those skilled with data analysis was deemed a top-10 consideration by surveyed workers, team managers, and business leaders in the 2021 Degreed State of Skills Report.

Junior Mobile Developer/Mobile Application Developer

Mobile applications developers are those who want to focus extensively on programming for smartphones and tablets. To excel at this role, you should be adept in using various computer languages such as C++, Java, and HTML, among others. Being able to develop both Android and iOs products also makes for a more competitive job candidate in mobile app development.

This career is enticing because of the rapidly growing mobile applications market and demand for highly skilled engineers. It is also great for those who like working in a more entrepreneurial environment or enjoy the variety of trying out all kinds of new ideas given the wide variety of purposes apps can serve. It’s also remarkable to note that “mobile app developer” was ranked the best job and career path in America as of 2017 due to great base salary pay, job satisfaction, and remarkable growth.

You are likely to start out as a Junior Mobile Developer assisting small teams in developing a company’s mobile application. You must ensure your programming is in line with design, write basic app features, and manage bugs. The more experience you gain, the more complex app features you will be able to execute and have more input in app design. If you like working in both front and back end development and having a hand in every part of the product execution, then this specialty would align well with your interests.

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Learning advanced coding skills can set you up for success in a wide range of software engineering career paths. Momentum courses offer full stack web development fundamentals, so you can become a master coder whose talents are well-suited for just about any position-enroll today, and the tech world can be your oyster!