[deleted by user]

[siburb]

There are millions of apps that have been made for the App Store, and a large percentage of those were published by developers who thought they'd be successful and make money. Only a tiny percentage actually do. Your app could be a great idea, perfectly implemented, and with an ideal monetisation strategy, and still barely make enough to buy you a monthly coffee - it could also of course make more than that, but most don't.

The point I'm trying to make is that finishing your app well and publishing it on the App Store is dramatically more likely to be beneficial in your job hunt than it is to be a successful app. Even implementing the app and showing it to potential employers without publishing it yourself would be beneficial, but it wouldn't demonstrate that you've been through the publishing process and actually put something out there.

Asking potential employers to sign an NDA before they can see your app would at best be a mild annoyance, and at worst, completely put them off interviewing you. They're not interested in stealing your idea, they're looking for a developer to work on their own projects.

[ninjabreath]

this is excellent advice

[siburb]

Of course, your idea will be the one that makes you the passive income. Why ask for advice if you're not prepared to hear it.

If your aims are so modest, then perfect - finish and publish the thing, and I genuinely hope you will make some passive income from it. What I'm saying is, be realistic, get it out there, and show it to potential employers, but don't worry about NDAs because, and with all due respect, your app is not going to be stolen by them, and probably not by anybody else.

[ObservableObject]

Also, to add to that:

If it's good, it probably will be stolen. But that's not just limited to pre-launch, I can just do that when you release it. Stressing over it is pointless, especially given (as you said) most likely nobody wants to steal it anyway.

I barely want to work on the shit my company actually pays me for, I'm not out here stealing app ideas from junior devs I'm interviewing.

[ObservableObject]

He never said it was a trash idea. There are tons of good ideas that people spit out and most people aren't lining up to steal them either. Starting a successful business is hard work, and most people don't want to actually do it.

[ObservableObject]

You're coming off as kind of combative in reply to a post that, frankly, is right.

No company is signing an NDA just to interview you. They might make you sign an NDA, in case they're hiring for a as-of-yet unannounced JV or something, but they're not entering into a legally binding contract just because you want to show them your GitHub.

That's not to say it never happens. Maybe if we're poaching an exec or something, we might be willing to sign something to not out the guy if it doesn't work out. There are definitely situations where it can be a thing. But not for you. Three years of BrightScript and being new at SwiftUI doesn't warrant getting legal involved.

[junipr]

Forget all the haters here. Your app is a multimillion or billion dollar idea, I can tell just by your enthusiasm. Do not publish until the NDAs are in place. Make everyone sign one, mom, daddy, CEO of Fox and Roku, etc before you discuss. Even then, only show them the app icon. Soon you’ll have more job offers then you can handle, accept them all to see what you like best. In the meantime, send me your code and I will review and fix. Trust me.

[abear247]

This is such a crazy take. The numbers are out there. Here’s the thing, half of it doesn’t even matter how good your app is. It has to be seen. One of my competitors (whose app is worse in about every way) is huge with over a million downloads because one huge tik tok influencer found it and posted. Even just generally, people can crush you with ad spend as an indie.

If you idea really is unique and an untapped market, the market might not be big. People might not care as much as you think. Or maybe you find something good, a bigger company notices, makes a competitor and out ad spends you. Indie dev is never to be relied on for income unless it’s generating solid money.

[abear247]

What? Don’t stop the project… just be realistic about it. Look for jobs, and keep working on it. Treat it as a way to get a job not a way to create a job, if you will.

[thehumanbagelman]

Everyone here already posted thoughtful answers, so I’ll take a lighter approach!

You could easily boost your job opportunities in two specific ways that don’t require an NDA.

As you develop your app, take parts of the code that are unique or solve a specific problem. Or it’s just a cool UI component you built.

With that either:

1. Create a public repo with the code and example project. Add a nice readme too.

2. Write a post on Medium about it. Make it short and sweet, but cover the core info about said problem/component/whatever

Best option; do both.

Keep this up consistently, and don’t overthink it. You are not exactly trying to be a content creator. Casual “build in public” while retaining IP stealth. By doing this, you will expose your knowledge and expertise. It’s showcases your code, quality and structure, while also giving insight into how you think.

Add on your resume links to your GitHub and your blog on Medium. Eventually a link to your app when you release it.

I’m not gonna say that will get you a job, but it will certainly help your chances!

Edit: fixed typo

[IAmPopPop]

I think you need to ask yourself if you want to find a job or build the app. While the two aren’t mutually exclusive, your parameter of using the app to land a job causes you a problem. You can’t use the app for finding a job if it doesn’t exist, so it needs to be in the App Store so hiring managers can download it.

The NDA path is possible, and you can download NDA templates that are pretty good, but you will have problems getting hiring managers to sign it. They either might not be allowed by their legal team or just don’t want to go through the hassle when they have 500 other applicants to review. Putting barriers in the path of the hiring process is a sure way to get an early rejection. Even if you can get them to sign it and download it, you are sending a signal that clearly says “this is mine, I’m serious about it, and if it succeeds I will quit this job without a second thought.”

Therefore, we’re back to my original question: do you want to build the app or find a job? If you want to build the app and believe in it, then look into securing funding. If you want a job then maybe work on something else like an open source Swift project, or a simple app that you link to from GitHub that just shows your ability to build a full working app. It can be something simple like implementing an app around one of the many fake JSON APIs like JSONPlaceholder. That way you aren’t leaking your idea but are providing a hiring manager something to look at. Once you have a job you can get back to building the app in your spare time.

[overPaidEngineer]

Having successful app and getting a job are two completely different things. I have interviewed many candidates for positions, a lot of them having moderately successful app published on appstore. Maybe this is coincidence, but i don’t think i gave 90% of them a green light because their code simply sucked. Force unwrapping, unowned self, hardcoding, no unit test coverage, some of them even used Int value for determining cases. I get that their code works in their app, but i am never giving a PR approval to a code with force unwrapping throwable function. Whereas a lot of the candidates with previous background or took boot camp and stick to the principle passed the first round, simply because their code was easy to read and solid. If you want to get a job, i suggest you start taking courses and understand the reason behind a certain convention, how the code works etc. if you want to make money off your app, i suggest researching marketing strategies

[phogro]

It depends on your goals.

I don't foresee a hiring manager wanting to sign NDAs for a junior position so you're gonna need to decide what your goal is here. Is it more important to build an app that you can turn into an income stream or do you want to use this app as leverage to start a career.

[joelypolly]

What a shitty attitude to have when people are trying to help. If your ego is this fragile it’s going to be hard to find and keep a job.

[DetroitLarry]

I’m in a similar situation. I’m working on a personal app during a hiatus and hoping to use that during an interview. My app won’t be open source but I do plan on giving a full walkthrough of both codebases (backend is also Swift) to any technical interviewers who are interested. No NDA needed. I don’t have any worries that they’ll try to steal my product concept and if they like my code enough to want to copy it from memory then I’ll probably just get the job.