/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>731260
Read the top comment for this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1gdy92/how_to_get_app_developer_on_board/

I was making over $90k doing IT full time and going to school part time, then I went back to school full time to get my BSCS. While doing so I started my own app business, which had $27k in revenues last year, and very low expenses (which I could make even lower if I wanted).

I have a lot of experience in IT. I know a lot about the app space. More than you, and most people. I see an uphill struggle in what I am doing - putting out apps so that I can make a salary I can live on. I might go back to fulltime work, depending on circumstances.

Ideas mean shit. Execution is everything. You don't know what users want. Zuckerberg said he had little interest in photos on Facebook, but his users were demanding it.

You can't execute, and ideas mean shit. What matters is execution to a point where you have a basic thing users might want. Then you hope users come. Then if several users all ask for a feature, you generally give it to them.

Insofar as learning programming - if any one could code these up with a little effort, everyone is doing them. Wait until you have to deal with threading problems around critical sections and shit like that. Some people have fun dabbling in programming, but to have real success you have to extensively study mathematics, then CS concepts for four years. And that's just the beginning.

>>731359
i am a full time CS student, how do i land an IT job anon? what qualifications do i need?

>>731260
You're an "idea person", the people who actually know how to make apps can make their own ideas, often better suited to the market, and they do exactly that.

You're the middleman that got cut out, sorry anon.

>>731365
>i am a full time CS student, how do i land an IT job anon? what qualifications do i need?

Learn what they teach in class.

I had an assignment in one class where we had to write a homework talking about process scheduling. 20 minutes worth of work probably guaranteed an A. I spent hours on it. It was something I wanted to know how it worked.

So learn what they teach in class. On interesting topics - read more. I often took the theory in class and grounded it in engineering. So in class we learn graphics and matrix math and Phong shading etc. - so I go and write OpenGL apps on my own to ground the theory into reality.

Also go to Github. Look at popular projects where the owners are active and accept pull requests. Look through their issues, and try to solve one that looks solvable. Send in a pull request. Do this until your patch is accepted at least somewhere. Going through four years of CS without doing this once is crazy. Do this after your first language class (in C or C++ or Scheme or Python or Java or whatever).

Once you've coded up a number of little apps for you to use yourself, think about spending the $25 for a lifetime developer account for Android. Or pay $5 a month so you can put up a website. See if you can make a little money.

One thing to remember is this - when you go on a job interview, if you can not answer every question in depth, you have failed. If you say you know Java, and they ask you to explain what the difference between an interface and abstract class, and why you might choose one over the other - if you don't give a clear and concise answer, you have failed. If you say you know MySQL, but can't explain what normalization or second normal form is, you have failed.

You should probably get some old desktop somewhere and install Ubuntu on it. Then install Apache and Mysql on it. Then write very simple apps using Python (or Perl, or PHP). Have a simple web site on your desktop. This sort of thing.

If you have an idea, just start building. Best way to learn is to do it. Even if you fail, learn from your mistakes and try again.

Best platform? IOS then Android.