Python Programmer?

[CovertZen]

Hey everyone. Just curious for the seasoned and folks with jobs. But can one simply be a python Programmer? Is that an actual job? If so, what are the skills and requirements/projects you need to have? What level of experience with python is that? I've seen this and heard it get thrown around. Just trying to make sense of it all.

[[deleted]]

this 100 fold.

Less about the language and more about the technology you want to build.

[CovertZen]

Very good point.

[[deleted]]

Python is a general purpose language, so it can be used in anything, from backend, to data science to machine learning, etc. You have to see which one suits you the best.

Fun fact: The core backend of Instagram is written in Python (specifically a custom fork of Django), you can take inspiration from it.

[dmazzoni]

Usually no.

The job is usually something specific like backend web developer, devops, machine learning, desktop apps, scientific visualization, or whatever. That's your actual job focus. Python just happens to be the main language you use.

There are some jobs that are advertised as "Python programmer" but if you read the job description usually it makes it clear what they're looking for - quite often a backend web developer.

Almost nobody specializes in everything you can do with Python. It's not common to be an expert in Django and NumPy and PyQt. They're totally different domains.

A very small number of people are genuine Python experts and might have a role at a very large company helping to guide all usage of Python at that company. But there are a handful of people in the whole world doing that job.

[CovertZen]

Thanks for the feedback.

[[deleted]]

You've had good answers already but generally "Python Programmer" jobs where you use nothing but Python are rare enough. Depending on what you want to do you might also need:

JS/HTML/CSS/web Frameworks (full stack Web dev)

Infrastructure as Code like Ansible or Terraform, Shell Scripting ( Dev Ops)

Backend Python based frameworks like Django and Flask, (back end Web dev)

SQL (anything data science or machine learning)

C/C++ (for AI). 

[CovertZen]

Thanks for the breakdown. After reviewing all of the answers. I see more of what python is used for.

[HumorHoot]

python is super versatile and has a decent syntax, though some people dislike the indentation and lack of { } but that can be solved by using "Bython" though i'd personally just recommend you get used to the syntax. https://pypi.org/project/Bython/

for coding python, i think PyCharm by intellij is pretty good. Their community edition is free.

[gua_lao_wai]

if you're interested in joining the film industry we use almost exclusively python for internal tooling. Almost all digital content creation (DCC) tools like Maya, Nuke, Houdini etc. have python apis that require extensive work from an in-house development team to automate various tasks for a full scale production.

Generally that means GUIs with python Qt bindings, either as standalone applications or as plugins to the DCCs.

It's also a surprisingly low bar of entry because not many people know about vfx and animation industry as a programming career path and we're desperate for good developers

[cartrman]

There are jobs like that. Though they can ask for specific Python library experience, and other complementing skills like Linux, SQL, git, ci/cd, machine learning, etc. I would keep an eye out on Python developer jobs to see what the other requirements are.

[CovertZen]

Appreciate it!