Picking a Niche

Learn how to pick your niche in the technology industry.

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Finding a suitable niche

How does one find a suitable niche? Is there a technique for selecting an area of specialization? Is there such a thing as a calling in tech?

There is no fixed rule or technique for choosing a niche in software development. In this lesson, though, we will highlight a few guidelines and methods gleaned from extensive experience in the tech industry.

There are many specialization areas for software developers. There are language specialties, platform specialties, specialties in methodology, and specific technologies or frameworks. However, one of the first things you should figure out is what kind of software development you want to do.

This may be difficult to figure out, but the following questions can help:

  • Do you want to work on the front end of applications, creating and programming user interfaces and designs (i.e., what users see, UI)?
  • Do you want to work on the middleware of applications, implementing business rules and logic?
  • Do you want to work on an application’s back-end, working with databases, design, and APIs?

The questions above can be a starting point for picking a good niche. It is even possible to select all three and become a full-stack developer, but in that situation it is best to specialize in a specific stack of technologies that are related. For example, a full-stack web developer could specialize in website development using JavaScript for both the front-end (Vue, Angular, or React) and the back-end (NodeJS).

You can also specialize in areas like designing and building for embedded systems, where you work closely with hardware devices and build software that powers these devices.

Another possible area of expertise is in mobile development. There is a huge demand for iOS or Android developers who are experienced in writing mobile apps. You could decide to build for both operating systems or choose to build only for Android or iOS.

Some software developers are deeply focused on becoming experts in a specific platform or framework, which is highly commendable. Examples of this sort of expertise would be those who specialize in building mobile apps with Flutter or React Native only or those who only design and build websites with WordPress.

Picking a niche

Picking a niche often seems like a daunting challenge to choose a specialty.

Here are a few questions to help start the process of choosing a niche:

  • Is there a particular type of work that no one wants to do or needs skilled people? An example of this might be AI and Data Science. Many people have yet to understand and dive into the AI space. It is more reasonable to become an authority in the field then, since not many developers are familiar with it.
  • What kind of topics are discussed at conferences, meetups, workshops, and user groups? The more frequent and well-known a topic is, the more likely it is to be a sought-after skill.
  • What are the most common types of questions from coworkers, friends, and online groups? Whatever the subject, it is likely you have a passion or affinity for it.

Whatever niche you choose, make sure that you focus your time and energy on that field.

It is good to note that a diverse skill set is not helpful as well.

It’s awesome to be a well-rounded and flexible developer. It feels good if you can use various tools, applications, and many different programming languages.

This flexibility can also make one a more valuable developer than someone who knows only one particular technology or language of programming.

Nevertheless, marketing oneself as a jack-of-all-trades is very difficult. Finding that a developer can do many things on the team is great, but companies or clients rarely set out to find that kind of person.

Often companies seeking to hire web developers ask for a front-end developer or back-end developer rather than asking for a full-stack developer. This is because they understand the power of picking a niche.

The point is that learning all kinds of different technologies and programming languages is great, but choosing one unique skill will be better still — even if it varies from time to time.

We can learn and become as flexible as we can, but it is vital to also have a specialty that makes us unique.

In summary, start with specialisation and branch out later.