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Ask HN: Should I relocate for a junior iOS developer role?

5 points by allsystemsgo ↗ HN
I have about 6 months of iOS development experience. I'd like to grow this skill set but, I'm based out of Dallas. I'm considering checking out Austin as well but, junior iOS developer roles have been challenging to come by. Any thoughts or tips are appreciated. Thanks so much.

13 comments

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duiker101
Can't you make some apps in your spare time? It might be even better to learn instead of a junior position.
allsystemsgo
I have been doing that actually, and will probably keep pressing on doing that. Only issue is I work in public accounting which takes a ton of time.

I have a prototype of one working but, at the end of the day, I need to be coding all day to really learn iOS development.

runjake
Are you unmarried? Are you in your early 20s? Definitely do it.

Are you unmarried? Are you under 30? Probably do it.

I never regretted those kinds of crazy decisions I made when I was young.

allsystemsgo
25. Just married. That's why I'm partial to Austin. We could do the distance thing for a while, no big deal. No kids.
runjake
If your new wife truly supports you, go for it. Encourage her to follow a similarly crazy dream. Live frugally until you build a solid base.

You are young with plenty of time to make "mistakes". I put that in quotes because its not really a mistake, but rather an experience with a little risk. You can always fall back on accounting, later.

allsystemsgo
She definitely does. I'll encourage her to do the same. Thanks! If you know of mobile dev firms in Austin that look for Junior devs, let me know :)
runjake
The only person I know of in Austin who may be able to help is @danbenjamin or his followers. They may provide good info.
allsystemsgo
Cool. I'll reach out to him on twitter. Looks like he's quite popular. Thanks very much for the tip!
jwwest
I'm an iOS developer in Dallas too. Without going into too much bagging on our terrible developer community, I will say that you have a couple of choices:

1. Bag a few freelance gigs. Build up your skills and confidence.

2. Try to get your foot in the door with a creative agency. Dallas has a lot of agencies and they generally are always looking for iOS developers for projects. The work is usually pretty simple.

3. Get in touch with Bottle Rocket. They're a local iOS development shop and may have need of junior developers.

If you ever want to grab coffee let me know. My contact info is in my profile.

allsystemsgo
You're not kidding about the lack of a developer community. Thanks for the tips. I'll look into the creative agencies. I'll definitely reach out to BR and see what happens. I'm pretty green though so, we'll see. Thanks for the offer for coffee, I may take you up on that!
zodester
I'm an iOS developer with a similar amount of experience. I'm based out of a small city in Georgia which has no developer community so its very hard to stay motivated and keep challenging myself. Glad to hear you got a job, mind me asking what your process was for finding it?
allsystemsgo
I don't have a dev gig yet. I work in my spare time outside of my regular job.

I'm just focusing on my personal projects and taking classes at my local community college. :)

zodester
I see, let me know if I can help you out on your side projects