Although the average startup founder is 42, becoming a successful online entrepreneur should start much younger. Zuckerberg was just 20 when he started Facebook, while Dorsey was also under 30 when Twitter officially launched. College is a time to experiment, make mistakes, and really find your true passion. It is also a chance to start building something that will be monetizable when you leave. One way to achieve this is to get into app building. From the comfort of your college dorm room, you have everything you need to start building something which could lead to a fulfilling and lucrative career.
Why Moonlight In App Development?
Depending on your college course, you may find yourself with a fair amount of free time. Your decision as a student is how best to spend this. You could get involved in sports, activism, or just enjoy the party lifestyle. However, if you invest your time in app building, you are setting yourself up for the best possible start following graduation.
The tech skills learnt during app development could be applied to your course to help you achieve higher grades. If you’re any good, then you could finish your four years with a saleable product, allowing you to sort out your student finance obligations, so that you can invest more in your post-university business ventures. Apps can be a pain at first, so starting early gives you the longest possible time to iron out any bugs.
Opportunities For An App Developer
As manual and low skilled work declines, the tech sector of employment is experiencing a boom. A growth of 12% is expected by 2024. This means thousands of extra vacancies, which need filling. No matter which company you go into, strong IT skills are a must. While all college students can use Microsoft Word, you can stand out by learning to code. This shows that you have both a creative and an analytical mind, so employers know you can apply yourself to all sorts of work.
How To Get Started
Firstly, decide why you want to build apps in the first place. Are you like Oxford student Owen Beckett, who just wanted a to make a fun game that involved his cats? Or are you more like Rob Hunt from Brunel University, who saw a way to make university scheduling easier? There’s a New Zealand student well-being app called HappE, a student built loneliness busting app called Tabled, and a health monitoring app launched by a third year business student. Research all these different ideas and let them inspire you to find that gap in the market. Approach your professors if you think they have the skills to help and start working on a project which can provide real value to students or the wider community.
Some apps are just mindless fun to pass the time. Others save money or track a person’s health. There is such a wide spectrum waiting to be built and endless ways to improve the ones that already exist. By investing your spare time into app building, you are setting yourself up for steady employment following college, and could potentially end up as the CEO of a high value business.
