What to Do After Learning Basics of Python?

Python is one of the most popular languages on the planet. Lots of people start learning Python as it is easy to learn and user-friendly. Maybe this is the reason you also learned Python. But after learning basics of Python, you are not sure what to do. In this post, I will guide you to take your next confident proper step.

Why Python?

Before we start, let’s understand why we should spend time learning Python. Will it be really worth learning Python? What is the future of Python?

Since Python is a high-level language, developers only need to focus on solving problems without worrying about other low-level details like memory management.

According to the StackOverflow developer survey 2022, Python is the fourth most commonly used programming language among professional developers. Almost 68% of developers love this language. And the rank is improving year by year.

According to the TIOBE index as of April 2023, Python is the most popular language. The reason behind this much popularity and ranking is because Python is easy to learn and you can do almost anything with it.

Because of this, lots of developers joining to the Python community. As of April 2023, over 137,000 packages or libraries are available on the official Python Package Index (PyPI).

These libraries are to solve various problems starting with web development to data science. In short, you can do almost any development job with Python. This is the reason lots of organization is looking to develop and migrate their projects into Python.

Fields to choose after learning Python

Now that you learned basics of Python, you now need to select any field you want to go with. So that you can concentrate your further learning in that particular area to land a job. Let’s see some of the demanding and popular fields you can choose after learning Python.

1. Data Engineering

If you love data then you can go into this field. The task of a data engineer is to maintain and manage data. As a data engineer, you need to develop code or pipelines to move data from various sources to a storage system such as data warehouses, data lakes, or databases.

In Python, you can find various libraries to connect and extract data from different databases such as PyODBC, MySQL, Psycopg2, SQLite3, etc. After extraction, you can load that data into Python using pandas library for further operation.

While working as a data engineer it is also your responsibility to keep your data clean. To do that you can use different data manipulation techniques easily in Python using various libraries.

One thing to note that if you are working in Data Engineering field you must have knowledge in different databases. There are mainly two types of databases: structured databases and unstructured databases. Below are some popular databases (for each type) you can learn:

1. Structured database
   • MySQL
   • PostgreSQL
   • SQLite
   • Oracle Database
   • Teradata
2. Unstructured Database
   • MongoDB
   • Elasticsearch
   • Apache Cassandra
   • Neo4j

Along with that if you have knowledge of Big Data it will be an added advantage for you to get a better job.

2. Data Science

Data Science is currently a trending field you can think about after learning Python. It is slightly tough as you need to learn different mathematical and statistical techniques.

In this field, the concept is more important than language. There are different subfields of this domain like Data Analyst, AI specialist, Machine Learning Engineering, Natural Language processing, Computer Vision, etc.

3. Web Development

Do you know Instagram is completely built using Python Django framework? Not only Instagram, sites like YouTube, Quora, Pinterest use Python as their backend service.

There are mainly two popular frameworks to do web development with Python. Those are Django and Flask.

Flask is relatively easy to learn and preferred for small web applications. You can build web applications quickly using Flask framework.

On the other hand, Django is difficult to learn but it is more advance and secure than Flask. Django is a preferred framework for building large-scale web applications like Instagram.

If you want to learn more about difference between Django and Flask, read this detailed article.

4. Game Development

Now if you are not familiar or comfortable with Java or C++, you can use Python for game development. You can make desktop as well as mobile games (for Android or iOS) in Python using libraries like Kivy, Pygame, BeeWare, etc.

One thing to note that Python is not commonly used for developing games. So you may get fewer or no job opportunities in this field using Python. You can learn this as an add-on to your resume or maybe to do some fun projects.

5. Software Testing

Nowadays Python is getting popular in software testing field also. There are so many popular libraries you can learn to get into this field. Below I am listing down some of them:

• Unit Testing – You can use built-in unittest library to write and run unit tests in Python. Unit tests are used to test individual components of the software to ensure they are functioning correctly.
• Automation Testing – Libraries like Selenium WebDriver and PyAutoGUI can be used to automate tests for web or desktop applications.
• Test Frameworks – There are some other popular frameworks or libraries like Pytest and Nose. These frameworks provide a more flexible and powerful way to write tests and generate test reports.

Jobs after learning Python

According to New York Based career site dice.com, Python is one of the most in-demand programming languages, with 120,655 job postings in the United States in only 2 months.

LinkedIn’s 2021 Emerging Jobs Report also ranks Python as one of the top skills in demand for the job market, with 151,000 job openings in the United States that require Python skills.

Furthermore, a quick search on popular job listing websites such as Indeed and Glassdoor reveals thousands of job openings that require Python skills in various industries and job roles, such as software development, data analysis, machine learning, web development, and more.

So, it is now clear to you that Python skills are highly valued and in demand in the job market.

Take Away

Job is not the only way you can earn money after learning Python. There are various other ways you can earn money using Python.

One thing you must do after learning basics of python is that do lots of hands-on and projects to build your confidence. Those projects you can showcase in your resume or portfolio.

To summarize, after learning Python, you should select any department you want to go with Python. Learn deeply in that field or domain. Do some projects. Then only try to earn money using Python. Not before that.

That’s it for this tutorial. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this tutorial, please let me know in the comment section below.