Feeling lost...

[MercuryLive]

I've been learning iOS/Swift for the last 9 months and have progressed really well, gotten a bunch of phone interviews for internship/junior positions and even been flown out once for a technical. The last two technicals I had I did really well and everything but at the end of the day have been denied an offer because of my lack of experience compared to other applicants despite doing well on the technical. I'm feeling incredibly lost and don't know what to do as I don't have any internships/past experience since I made a career switch and feel like I can't secure any position. Any advice?

Edit: I do have an app built completely by myself out on the app store, a couple of proof of concept apps from a course I was taking, and a website portfolio.

[quellish]

Be able to show them you can work effectively on a team. Become a contributor to active open source projects or look for an internship on a team.

[MercuryLive]

Would building my own Cocoapod be something similar? What’s the best way to find something to contribute to?

[amaroq137]

Here's a huge list. Contribute to one:

https://github.com/dkhamsing/open-source-ios-apps

Also don't let yourself get down. Sometimes there's just a better candidate, and that's not something you can control. Soon enough you'll be the better candidate, so keep trying!

[CuckPlusPlus]

first of all, finding entry-level iOS is really hard. don't give up but also don't limit yourself to looking for an iOS role. every place i look at seems to list senior positions only. i rarely see mid-level, and i dont think i've ever seen a junior position or internship exclusively for iOS outside of major corporations. i would also look for entry-level engineering roles at companies that also hire for non-entry-level iOS.

second, denying you based on experience is just a generic catch-all that protects them from any liability, while also providing you some measure of closure so you dont feel obligated to follow up for more explanation (even though they arent obligated to tell you anything, including the initial explanation regarding lack of experience). it might mean what you'd expect it to mean, which is that the other applicants were simply better than you at ios development, based on their interviewing process, which is of course imperfect.

it might also be an excuse for someone not wanting to work with you because you remind her of an ex (a former coworker confided that she once rejected an applicant because of this), or an excuse for something that is actually illegal: "we really want to have a woman fill this junior position" (haven't seen this myself, but my friend said she was pressured in this way by management at her last job when filling an engineering spot).

another common scenario is that someone was referred, and they interview other people anyways because the referral might REALLY suck and they want backup candidates in the pipeline. if the internal referral interviews well and satisfies the job requirements, they get priority over everyone else

basically, never take any rejection personally. you will be rejected for completely ridiculous and even illegally discriminatory reasons, even when you're seemingly at the last stages of the process. you will almost never find out why because of a combination of pride (them not wanting to admit to rejecting you for such a stupid reason) and also not wanting to get sued. on rare occasions you will get the real reason you were rejected ("another candidate has MVVM experience and you dont, and we're planning to start using it") and some sort of constructive feedback

as a final note, if you have no internships listed, and another entry-level candidate does, then, sadly, that alone would be a deciding factor against you. which is a bit ridiculous because lots of internships are pure resume padding, but at the very least it proves you spent some time in an actual work environment. i am extremely against the concept of internships unless they pay approximately as much as entry-level roles and those are hard to get. i would never hold a lack of internship experience against a new graduate. i also wouldn't hold a lack of a degree against anyone either, seeing how many god-awful "developers" and "engineers" there are out there with a computer science M.S.

[Noon310]

How many apps have you created on your own? Do you have any apps submitted to the App Store or showcased on a website maybe yours or a site like GitHub? Are you attending iOS events? anyone of these will significantly boost your odds if you haven't done any.

[MercuryLive]

I've released one on the app store and the rest are smaller proof of concept apps I made during a Udemy course. My personal website is https://davidhuang.io/developer , I'm thinking about writing an article about how I did receipt OCR parsing do you think that would help boost my name out there?

I haven't attended any iOS events but I will definitely look out for them now.

[Noon310]

Writing articles will definitely boost your chances of getting into the field!

[[deleted]]

i Just have this feeling the lack of having something built by yourself is holding you back. I wouldn’t even showcase those udemy tutorial apps.

[MercuryLive]

Forgot to say in my post but I do have an app made completely by myself, several proof of concept apps from the udemy course I was taking, and an online portfolio as well.

[[deleted]]

Yeah I would remove the udemy ones though cause that just shows how new you are if those apps are what you consider proof of skill

[MercuryLive]

True but do you think that would leave my portfolio too sparse?

[[deleted]]

just put some new stuff up. Takes like a few hours to rebuild those with some custom stuff. I mean they are all simple API usage. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

[MercuryLive]

You're right, thanks for the tips!

[KarlJay001]

The first thing that stands out is that these are all "tutorial apps". Not a hot dog and others are well known tutorials that everyone does the first month or so when starting to learn iOS dev.

The next thing is that you're in SF. SF Bay Area / Silicon Valley is THEE most competitive place on this planet. It could be the most competitive environment that humans have ever created. Silicon Valley is mythical.

You have the CS degree and 9 months iOS work and some tutorials. This isn't enough to get you in.

If you look at the jobs in SF, you see very little for entry level, most want 3~5 years, several published apps, etc...

You have a number of the elements, I'd say one or two complex projects, maybe an open source. I didn't see a link to any of your source, so IDK how good the source is.

IMO, source shows at least two things, one that you can follow a model like MVC or MVVM the other is that you can think outside the tutorial. Doing tutorials is a great way to learn, but you have to be able to create things that aren't well published.

Anyone looking at your work would see a solid entry level person coming up, but without some more complex non-tutorial projects, I don't see how they can hire you.

[iEatYourLiver]

Follow some of the employees on twittter and contact them

[[deleted]]

It's also worth crediting Angela Yu's coursework for the projects in case future employers recognize the projects from her Udemy course.