Mobile Apps and Software development in SA? Is it worth it?

[tsavvy]

I want to become a mobile apps and software dev and has already done many courses on udemy.

South Africa doesn't really have a "Silicon Valley" that makes tech stuff for the whole world s im concerned about the opportunities to advance in this career path in south africa. Who will I make software for and will it only be local or international too? I really want to make a difference and advance in this career. Im not really worried about money, as long as I get enough to afford for a family(of 4 people) and stuff ill be happy

Too big companies might also not be my cup of tea so working for some international brand with thousands of people and no real "lekker" vibe will be a problem.


I also saw that average salaries in SA for this kind of job is around R240k(goes to R540k) annualy (median) while in america and many other countries in Europe the salaries of entry level programmers are about R700k annually($50k).

 

[Nameite]

I would say definitely worth it, a lot of big companies are moving to open source and turning into tech companies...and mobile is the new trend

Even if you can get a good local job, there are plenty of international jobs where you can work from home

 

[Thor]

I want to become a mobile apps and software dev and has already done many courses on udemy.

South Africa doesn't really have a "Silicon Valley" that makes tech stuff for the whole world s im concerned about the opportunities to advance in this career path in south africa. Who will I make software for and will it only be local or international too? I really want to make a difference and advance in this career. Im not really worried about money, as long as I get enough to afford for a family(of 4 people) and stuff ill be happy

Too big companies might also not be my cup of tea so working for some international brand with thousands of people and no real "lekker" vibe will be a problem.


I also saw that average salaries in SA for this kind of job is around R240k(goes to R540k) annualy (median) while in america and many other countries in Europe the salaries of entry level programmers are about R700k annually($50k).

You don't have to live in the US and EU to earn what they earn.

Programming is something you can do from anywhere in the world.

 

[tsavvy]

Has anyone done courses on udemy? Specifically Tim Buchalka's Master Android 7 and Java from beginner to expert?

 

[c10n3d_0r6]

Get The Big Nerd Raunch for Android Programming book and check out the courses by Google on Android programming on Udacity.

 

[V1rus]

Mobile dev here:

So I tried reading through all the books and courses and still the best way of learning is by creating a sample app and reading as you go along. Just get the basics right first. Learn how Activities/Fragments/Views/StoryBoards/ViewControllers work first and then try to make a sample app.

From a business perspective I have found that making a List/Detail app with a basic menu to be the best way to start off with. Create a list with random details and when you click on something it should expand to a more detailed view. After this you can get the list data from a free REST endpoint and start looking at saving it into a db. Once you have that going you can start looking at using libraries such as Retrofit(JSON consumer), Dagger(Dependency Injection), and patterns such as MVP/MVVM etc.

For any advanced Android devs (working with stuff like MVP/Dagger) I have created a template app which you can copy to skip all of the boilerplate that goes along with setting up Dagger components and modules for MVP. Please feel free to check it out at https://github.com/V1rus999/MVPDaggerTemplate