How to become an iOS app developer

You work on a schedule that suits you, live where you feel most comfortable, earn upwards of $100,000 a year and build a product that improves other people's lives. Your profession is in demand and you receive attractive offers regularly. As a mobile app developer, all of that is achievable.

What an iOS developer does

Through a phone we listen to our favourite tracks, learn English, transfer money to family, send voice messages to close friends, do yoga and order sushi for dinner. All of that comes from applications built by iOS developers. They are the ones who make sure a product is good, convenient and effective — which is to say, that it makes our everyday tasks simpler.

An iOS developer takes on the whole cycle of building an application, from the moment the idea strikes to pressing publish on the App Store. They analyse the audience and study what it needs, design the interface, write the code, test it, publish it and then keep updating and improving it.

iOS development is one of the most sought-after directions in tech. You can work at a large corporation, at an interesting but as yet little-known startup, or set out on your own as a freelancer. The work pays well from the start, but it requires particular knowledge and skills. Fortunately, a modern iOS course can give a beginner everything needed to enter the profession.

How to become an iOS app developer

When you have a goal, you need neither motivation nor willpower — you simply pick the route that suits you best to becoming an iOS developer from scratch:

• Teach yourself: take courses, find video lessons, listen to webinars and read a great deal. The cost is minimal but the time is not. Teaching yourself also means building your own curriculum, hunting for good material and doing without feedback.
• Get a degree. The second route is theoretical knowledge in information technology and a university diploma. That takes at least four years and a substantial sum, and at the end you will find you still have to pick up the practical skills.
• Take an iOS course. The fastest and most effective way to gain both the theory and the practice. Let's look more closely at its advantages and drawbacks.

Learning iOS development on a course

Tech schools teach from purpose-built, structured curricula covering everything needed to get hired: studying the audience, writing code, everything to do with building iOS applications, right through to advice on interviewing. The PASV curriculum is openly available to students, so you can look through every topic online.

Courses have other advantages too:

• Instructors and mentors help students along the way, and the material sticks faster in those conditions. You can ask questions in the chat and get quick answers instead of spending time on dubious forums.
• A good course usually runs for about six months. That is enough to learn a new profession without giving up years to a degree.
• A course walks you step by step through building applications. The practical emphasis, through homework and work on real projects, gives students the experience they need and a clear sense of what an employer will expect.

The approach has its drawbacks. The first is the fairly high cost, given how demanding and how long the training is. The second is that iOS development requires concentration and attention, both in the work itself and in preparing for it. Getting a good result means putting time into intensive study regularly. But it is worth it.

What it takes to build applications

A good course answers the question of how to become an iOS developer from scratch. But what does it take to build an interesting, working product?

1. Knowing Swift.
2. Understanding object-oriented programming.
3. Command of Xcode and the iOS SDK.
4. Working with databases and network requests.
5. Designing user interfaces comfortably.
6. Testing your product properly.
7. Knowing how to submit an application to the App Store.

Suppose you have finished a course and even have an interesting iPhone application in your portfolio. How do you become the kind of iOS developer the market wants? Above all, practise. Do not be afraid to work upwards, from simple projects to harder ones, and keep learning: follow the trends, join webinars, read the industry news.

The PASV iOS course

On our iOS Developer course you will learn a new profession in six months and be able to build good mobile applications for Apple devices. Experienced working programmers from Silicon Valley will teach you the languages you need and how to work with the tooling, network requests, databases and everything else that getting hired requires.

You will also be able to take an internship on a real commercial project and learn how interviews at international companies go. Tuition can be paid in instalments, and your spouse can take the same course at PASV free of charge.