Interview with a Mobile and Web Application Developer

Sukesh Batchu is Mobile and Web Application Developer and is currently working as Software Developer for KPMG in Berlin, Germany. Born into a family focussed on academia, Sukesh found his interest in Information Technology and focussed on exponentially growing Mobile and Web service Business in his career. This is his career story.

• Can you please explain your profession little bit?
  
  
  There has been a tremendous increase in the use of smartphones in the global market and this led to the explosive growth of “Apps” on the smartphones. With this growth in mobile use and time spent by mobile users on applications, there is a great demand for Mobile application developers. Though there are 2+ Million apps on IOS and Android devices, there is still need and demand for skillful mobile application developers and developers are in great demand who can also with Artificial Intelligence, IOT etc
  
  
  And coming to web applications, the convenience and user friendliness of accessing over web browser with internet propelled the growth of web applications.
  
  
• Tell me about your family and childhood.
  
  
  My father is a Research Scientist in Animal Genetics, my mom is housewife and my elder brother works as Research Assistant in BioInformatics. Education and getting good grades have always been stressed as the most important things in my life right from my childhood.I definitely focussed on getting good grades all the way through my education.And this definitely helped me in getting into top rated college(CBIT,Hyderabad).
  
  
• When and how did you get into Mobile and Web Application development
  
  
  After my Bachelors of Technology(BTech) graduation from CBIT(major in IT), I was hired by Cognizant Technology Solutions(CTS) through campus placements. Though I was assigned to work on Business Process management(BPM) projects initially and work with Pega software platform , I did not get a chance to work on challenging projects and found myself with lot of downtime. As CTS employee, I have access to knowledge portal with tons of learning material.With Mobile service business booming at the time(2011), I focussed on learning mobile application tools via Knowledge portal during my downtime. Besides learning material, I have access to examples and online forums and gained new skills like developing applications using Apache Cordova and Adobe PhoneGap. With newly gained skills, I was able to get my hands on Mobile application projects and have worked on numerous Mobile application development projects serving clients since then.
  
  
• What challenges did you face in your career and how did you overcome those challenges?
  
  
  My family focussed on academia and they believed academia provided stability compared to career in Information Technology. I was initially discouraged from getting into Information Technology. With rapidly changing technologies, my family feared that career in IT would not provide job security. With some research and discussions with IT Subject Matter Experts(SME), I promised myself to stay relevant in IT by adding necessary skills to my career wagon throughout my career.
  
  
• What are the basic skills required to start career as an Application developer?
  
  
  Proficiency in using HTML5, Javascript, Jquery are required for Application development. These skills are transferable and can also be used in mobile or web application development. I would also like to point that with so many ready-to-use tools like Cordova and PhoneGap, developers can create applications with few instructions and little guidance these days.
  
  
• Do you have any suggestion or recommendation to our readers?
  
  
  Basics of programming will be covered in college and students are advised to work on taking these classes seriously. Since technology is dynamic, start preparing which technology to get into or focus on at least 6 months prior to graduation by keeping an eye on the technology trends, job postings and by connecting with industry recruiters/subject matter experts.