Becoming an Indie iOS Developer

I recently made the decision to become a full-time independent iOS developer – leading me down the entrepreneurship path. Being an iOS developer comes with a lot of career options. You can join a company full-time – ranging from large to early stage startups where the roles and responsibilities can vary greatly. You can choose to freelance and take on contract jobs with companies of your own choosing and generally be able to make your own schedule. There is also the option of being an independent developer and building your own apps – that’s the route I’m going to be taking. They each have their pros and cons and I’m going to share with you what my journey leading up to this point has been like and how I came to this decision.

How I Got Started

iOS development is something I genuinely enjoy doing and it just so happens to be a skill that pays very well. I graduated with around $200k in student debt. Naturally, I felt the weight of that debt and felt pressured to hurry up and land a job with a company that pays well so I could pay off those loans and still have money left over to live and “adult”.

It took me a few years to land my first full-time dev job. A few factors played into that: 1. I didn’t have confidence in my abilities; 2. there was the fear of taking a job that didn’t pay enough to allow me to afford to pay my loans and live life; and 3. I was having trouble finding a company I was excited to work with. It was a constant battle between wanting to find a company and project I was genuinely passionate about (that helps during interviews) and feeling pressured to take the first opportunity that was offered to me for financial reasons, but also to start building experience.

Landing My First Developer Job

Filling out dozens of job applications each week never worked for me. I had to go way out of my comfort zone to finally be able to get my first iOS developer job. It required me to do some reflection on the type of engineering role I wanted, build my self-confidence, and do a lot of enthusiastic reverse recruiting for myself. I met people along the way who offered to help me get those initial phone screens. Mid January of 2019 was when I met the first person who offered to have coffee with me after she saw my resume. Within a month I had met with 4 other people that stemmed from my conversation with her who also turned out to be very helpful. By mid March, after interviewing with 4 companies, I had received internship and full-time offers.

The internship was the first offer I received. I was tempted to accept right away because I felt like at least I’d be gaining some experience even if it wasn’t a full-time offer. But my gut told me I should hold off and see where these other interviews led me. I chose to be transparent with the person who made me the offer and he was very understanding. He told me to let him know how the other interviews went and if they didn’t pan out that the internship offer would still be on the table.

For financial reasons, I was glad I waited for the full-time offer. However, I can’t say the company’s product was one I was excited to work on. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the company or the product, just that they were looking for an iOS developer. I saw an opportunity that paid well and I took it. Back then, the only reflection work I did was deciding I wanted to be an iOS developer instead of a front-end or full-stack engineer. I’m glad I made that choice.

I like to think that any decisions we make offer a learning experience. I learned a lot about myself during my year at Vivid Seats before being let go at the start of the pandemic and a ton more since then. Being back in the job market looking for my next role was so much easier with experience under my belt.

Looking for My Next Role

In the months that I was still set on working with a company I filled out maybe only 4 job applications – and only after I had already connected with a recruiter or knew that my application was going directly to the hiring manager. All of my other interviews came out of recruiters reaching out to me. 

I definitely saw a lot of companies that raised red flags for me. I kept note of those red flags as I kept interviewing with other companies. There were a couple of companies where I could see myself being excited about working with the company and team specifically. They had cool products I would actually feel good about working on too. Unfortunately, they were affected by the pandemic as well and so I had to keep looking. 

Of all the companies I interviewed with, there was only one where I felt truly passionate about the product and completely comfortable with the team. I didn’t get the role because it was a very early stage start-up and the other candidate showed more experience during the second technical interview. That interview experience is what helped me come to my decision of becoming a full-time indie iOS developer. 

My Decision to go Independent

This company, Somewhere Good, showed me that it’s possible to have it all as a developer. The company has great values and stands by them. I felt completely comfortable with the team members I met during the interview process, including the CEO. It felt like a safe environment where I could bring my full self to the table. The product itself was going to be something fun, refreshing, and serve a great purpose. All of this reminded me of why I wanted to be an iOS developer in the first place. 

Like I said before, being an iOS developer offers a lot of flexibility. I want to work on projects I’m excited about and I want to do it on my own schedule. I want to be able to go off and live in another country for a few months if that’s what I feel like doing. Being able to sit on my front porch on an empty beach and write code would be so cool. You might think I could do all of these things being a freelancer and doing contract work. You’d be right, I could, but those aren’t the only factors behind my decision.

There are a ton of people in tech, but not a lot that look like me or that have had the same life experiences that I have. Which means there’s something different I can bring to the table like fresh ideas or a fresh spin on products that are out there, but don’t serve people like me. I get a lot of my inspiration for app ideas from the experiences I’ve gone through. My job search experience is where I got the idea for the app I’m currently working on, Reverse Recruiter. I also get inspiration from the people I’ve chosen to surround myself with. Oddly enough, the pandemic has allowed me to connect with a lot of new people. I’ve joined communities like iOS Dev Happy Hour, Essential Developer, and participated in events like Vision Boarding and Money Moves with Latinas Who Brunch and YoQuieroDineroPodcast, just to name a few. There are so many entrepreneurs within the Latinx community that are out there representing and building for our community. 

I decided I want in on that. I’m here to represent and contribute to my community. That is what I am here to do. Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing some of the resources I’ve been working on that I want to share with you all. If you feel like this article or any of the content I put out will resonate with someone you know, please share it with them. I want as many people as possible to benefit from the content I’m putting out. 

As I build my app Reverse Recruiter, I’m making it the app I wish I would’ve had during my job search and providing along with it resources to show you how to effectively reverse recruit for yourself. I’ll also be throwing in some helpful tips and habits I’ve been using myself that will help you stay sane, motivated, and prepared during your job search.