Best technologies going forward

Hey guys, I have a question about what, in your opinion, would be the best technologies to learn going forward. I’m currently in my 3rd year of a 4 year software development course. The primary focus of this course is Java (which I love btw) with some Web Design through HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP. My question is, what should I be learning in my spare time?

I’m hearing a lot that mobile application development is very much an “in-demand” skill right now, and I will be doing Android next semester, but do you think that is what I should focus on for mobile apps? Continue with Java and learn Swift for native apps? Or do you think mobile apps are kind of moving more in the direction of Ionic/React Native?

That brings me on to my next question (and I know it’s a bit of a contentious issue) Angular 2.0 or React? I’m fairly comfortable in Angular 1.X and have zero experience with React. I haven’t learned Angular 2.0 yet, since there are so many surrounding technologies that I have to get to grips with first (Webpack/SystemJS, RXJS, TypeScript etc.). What do you think will be the better framework to have in my tool belt?

Sorry for how long (and full) this post is, but I would really like to have an idea of what I would should be aiming to learn over the coming year. Thanks!

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Thanks for the advice :slight_smile:. I’ve since been digging around for Angular 2 resources that I could use to learn. I built the Tour of Heroes from Angular (although not since RC4), and found that whenever I tried to change the architecture, my application fell apart. I feel like I have a reasonably decent handle on the actual Angular part of building the app. But have you any suggestions for tutorials that focus on the surrounding technologies? I want to make the transition from Gulp to Webpack, but I have a hard time reconciling tutorials that focus on Webpack with tutorials that focus on Angular.

Excellent, that gives me plenty to dig into. Thanks! :slight_smile:

@P1xt You mentioned needing to know how to test front end and back end code… Are you talking about writing tests? Do you know of any resources for learning how? I feel like testing wasn’t addressed in the front end cert and every time I hear someone mention writing tests, I put it on my mental to do list (which is as good as doing nothing)…

Thanks a ton! Mocha and Chai are definitely the ones I keep hearing about, thanks for the links.