What Programming Languages Should Freelancers Learn in 2018?

Emerging trends in the web and app development space should be considered when you want to learn something new as a developer and freelancer.

The best investment that anyone can do is the investment in his or her own education. It is never too late to learn something new and 2018, the clear trend of the world moving towards web and more specifically towards mobile is pretty much clear and well discovered. Web development is an evergreen technology and freelance developers can always consider being a web developer. Next to the web is mobile apps.

PHP

When it comes to web development, there are no alternatives to PHP and so any web developer must consider PHP as the choice of web language.

PHP is a very broad choice of language. Choose a specialization like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, XenForo or rapid application development framework like CakePHP, Laravel, Yii etc.

PHP as a choice of Web language can be a good starting point. In India, as far as I know, it is still not part of the curriculum in most of the technology courses and so either you can opt for online learning course from Udemy or can opt to take up local coaching.

If you want to consider it online, here are links to some of the best Udemy course on

• PHP
• CakePHP
• Laravel
• Yii
• WordPress Plugin Development

JavaScript

Apart from PHP, JavaScript is another evergreen web technology. There aren’t many sites that can run without JavaScript or jQuery these days and Angular.JS, NODE.JS are on the rise for last 5 years.

As far as I know, JavaScript is still not part of the curriculum in most of the technology courses and only basics of HTML and CSS are covered. So either you can opt for online learning course from Udemy or can opt to take up local coaching.

Here are links to some of the best Udemy courses on

• JavaScript
• jQuery
• Node.js
• Angular.js

Mobile Development

Moving away from the web and we have an ever-growing market for mobile where Android and iOS are the most dominant players.

Source IDC

Worldwide more than 98% of devices are on Android and iOS combined. So if you are to consider mobile development, Android should be your first choice followed by iOS.

For Android, the programming language is Java, if you would like to start, Java can be a good starting point.

Java is included in few curriculums but again it is very basic. If you prefer to be taking the courses on Java, here are some good Java and Android courses from Udemy.

• Java
• Android
• iOS

Final Thoughts

If I was a fresher or even one or two years of experience, I would have moved either to PHP or JavaScript or Java for sure. In fact, I had purchased an iOS 9 Udemy course recently. It is an awesome course and the iOS course I recommended above is from the same instructor but on iOS 10.

As a freelancer, you can never stop learning. I still keep learning and that is how I remain occupied between projects.

If I was doing a job, I would have switched to the above-mentioned technology as soon as I could to make sure I take control of my own career and when I want to consider freelancing, I have the right kind of experience and expertise.

Further Reading …