.NET development has consistently ranked high among other development areas. Thanks to the variety of .NET tools available, rolling out products to market has become easier and faster. Also, according to Stackshare, more than 2,000 companies use .NET in their tech stacks, including Accenture, Microsoft, and Stack Overflow.
All these, combined with an impressive .NET developer salary, make .NET development a tempting career opportunity. That said, let’s delve into the nuances of becoming a .NET developer, including average job salaries. We’ll also give you some tips and tricks on kicking off your .NET career.
What Is a .NET Developer?
Introduced by Microsoft, .NET is a software development platform used for building and maintaining Windows applications. .NET comes complete with various coding languages, libraries, and tools for web and desktop development. Today, this technology is also broadly applied in web service, website, and game development.
Hence, a .NET software developer is a programmer who specializes in the technologies related to the .NET platform. The work revolves around reliable and multifunctional programming languages, such as C#, VB.NET, and F# (F sharp).
Also, according to Visual Studio, the most popular component of the .NET/C# tech stack is ASP.NET, which is used for web development.
Overall, .NET allows developers to build a wide range of products. And since the labor market is still in the active development stage, programmers with a profound grasp of C# and .NET technologies are in high demand.
.NET Developer Job Description
In a broad sense, the main responsibility of a .NET developer is to produce code using the .NET platform. Typically, programmers create applications from scratch, configure existing systems, and provide user support.
In reality, a .NET developer’s responsibilities are much broader, including:
- Collaborating with in-house teams to design, develop, and maintain software
- Analyzing software requirements and functionality
- Ensuring that junior staff deliver according to standards
- Spotting bottlenecks and bugs and devising solutions to eliminate issues
- Maintaining code quality, organization, and automatization
Usually, each company includes a unique job description, which lists the responsibilities for a particular job role.
.NET Developer Salary Range
If we’re talking about the U.S., the average remuneration for a .NET specialist ranges from US$71,452 to US$105,000 a year. An entry-level .NET developer salary is pretty close to the average and could reach up to US$79,500 annually. On the other hand, a senior .NET developer salary is substantially higher, with a median of US$115,000 a year.
In other parts of the world, a junior .NET developer’s salary is lower, ranging from US$21,600 to US$48,180 annually.
How to Build a .NET Career on Your Own
Most companies tend to look for a purple squirrel rather than a real-life .NET specialist. That is why the skills and experience employers are looking for often include a whole gamut of technical abilities.
Whether it’s SQL, Mac, or Linux, you will always be underqualified for a majority of positions. Therefore, your main objective is to become a promising candidate rather than a jack of all trades.
Also, there are lots of .NET directions you can take to apply your knowledge. For example, mobile and gaming app development requires a completely different tech stack.
With that in mind, we conveniently unpacked the general skills you need to become a .NET coder.
1. Programming languages
As mentioned above, C#, F#, and VB.NET are the most widely used technologies in .NET development.
C# is an object-oriented programming multi-paradigm programming language that allows programmers to create a variety of robust applications that run on .NET. It has quite a steep learning curve, but still has a simpler syntax than other languages like C++.
Unfortunately, there’s no best way or shortcut to mastering this technology. Only a combination of learning resources that dovetail one another will help you unravel C#. Thus, you can test the waters by using the official self-guided tutorials provided by Microsoft.
VB.NET is another staple when working with .NET. It was designed specifically for .NET by Microsoft in 2002. As such, VB.NET has full access to all the libraries in the .NET Framework and can run on Microsoft, Linux, or Mac OSX.
2. Database application
Databases are among the other essentials in .NET development. Since data is one of the core aspects of app development, you shouldn’t miss this area of knowledge. Ideally, you should have at least a basic understanding of both SQL and NoSQL types of databases.
3. Basic understanding of client-side technologies
If you choose web app development as your major, you’ll need the skills to create catchy and interactive web applications. To do that, you need in-depth know-how in front-end technologies like HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript.
4. ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET MVC is a popular web framework for building websites and web applications on .NET. Since it is one of the top languages for web app development, a developer should master it to deliver secure solutions fast.
The Bottom Line
The future of .NET development looks bright. It has evolved tremendously since its advent in 2002 and remains popular to this day.
If .NET development is your desired career path, you should start with the fundamentals like C# and work your way up to supplemental technologies based on your major.
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