It was commonly believed that career in Information Technology (IT) is only about software development. Though there are more specialized and diversified profiles available in this career, software development or programming has always remained as one of the key glamorous and lucrative options.

Let us first understand what are some of the critical roles and responsibilities of a software developer.

• Read and comprehend system requirements specification and/or use cases.
• Understand the system architecture and detailed design.
• Develop programs as per the detailed design specification and best coding practices.

In software development, one may choose to specialize in one of the programming languages like C++, Java, C# etc. and Java is one of the popular choices.

From its inception in 1997, Java captured the hearts of developers with its platform-independence and simplicity. Since then it has been one of the most popular languages with the largest installed base of enterprise applications: software from application servers to new mobile computing Android which is based on the Java API.  A typical enterprise application would consist of many layers as shown in the diagram below. One, who wants to make a career in developing enterprise applications using Java, should have expertise in these tools and technologies which are predominantly used in those respective areas.

Following table lists the parts of enterprise application and Java technology elements involved therein.

If one focuses on these Java skills along with knowledge of SDLC and OOAD UML, and Soft skills, one will be in a position to not only get the first job but have a growing career in Java technologies too!