

Ask HN: Where do I go from here? - ArashEE

While I've never been actively engaged in the Hacker News I do know what a tremendously helpful and intelligent community it is. Time and time again I've seen people asking for help and being overwhelmed with the supportiveness from fellow members. It is with that said that I myself am in need of some guidance. My story goes like this:<p>One lazy afternoon, while a sophomore in high school, I watched the movie Antitrust; after which I immediately knew what it was that I wanted to do with my life.  I wanted to be a developer of some sort. This lead me to George Mason's Computer Science programming. Prior to which I'd only fooled around with C++ and Java for a year.<p>In May I graduated from George Mason University with a B.S. in Computer Science and a Minor in Business. Going through college I worked on a networking team (mostly helpdesk) for 5 years and considered it to be my career choice, not programming.  
After graduating, I wanted to put my CS knowledge to work to try and start something on the side and that's when I discovered the iPhone SDK. Having only ever programmed in Java the switch to the Objective-C provided a steep learning curve. I have since become more comfortable with it over the past two years and its beginning to pay off. Thus far, I've published 3 applications to the Apple App Store with another on the horizon. These have been learning apps, the first one was a flashlight app, but they got me started.<p>Last December, after struggling with the economy, the company I worked for had to lay me off. It may have been the best thing that ever happened to me. I was able to focus on learning Objective-C and producing my second and third apps.  It has also landed me my current contract where I am a full time iOS developer.<p>While my current contract is a full time, it will end in mid-January and I need to start looking at my next steps. I have developed my abilities with iOS but I know I still have much to learn. I have become intimately familiar with setting up non-editable table views with custom cells. Most of the work I have done involved multiple views connected with 1 or more nav controllers (tab bar instance), web views, minor exposure to consuming XML data, and displaying maps, graphics, etc… Things that I have not figured out yet and hope to in the future are the playback of media content (streaming and locally stored) and working with advance web service consumption. I feel these two areas are critical to most modern age applications and will need to be integrated in some manor into all apps. I have learned a lot during my 2 years working with Objective-C and know that I could one day become the all - knowing developer I envision myself becoming, but not without being challenged to learn and grow.<p>I want to further advance and hone my skills, but I also have several responsibilities to pay for. Early in my life to focus on the money I realize, but I have a mortgage, car payment, etc… and the prospect of being out of work again is starting to get me worried. I have been searching the web and passing out my resume like a newsletter, but I have yet to land anything to follow my current contract.  I am looking for guidance in where and what to look for in opportunities such as start-ups, contracts, jobs etc… I know I need to find a "job" but I am much more interested in finding an "opportunity."  My journey has begun and now I need to find the next step, where do I go from here?
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mahmud
Go Patriots!

But .. are you sure you found it difficult going from Java to Objective-C?

You also mention a flash-light app as one of your projects .. why is that
significant?

Then you mention working with "multiple views" .. are you sure you're
comfortable _programming_? I can't think of a situation where that might be
topical or worth mentioning.

This is not about work or income, it's about basic skill. I think you should
take a month off an _learn_ more programming.

I am saying this because nobody should "get more comfortable" with Objective-C
over 2 years. 2-weeks, at most.

Sorry if I sound rude or mean, I don't intend to. But everything you said
above screams non-programmer. You might be a CS major, but certainly not a
coder.

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JangoSteve
_I have been searching the web and passing out my resume like a newsletter,
but I have yet to land anything to follow my current contract._

Get away from the computer and start networking while you still have time.

Every worthwhile contract and client I've had came from someone I knew or met,
whether through friends or from entrepreneur events and developer meetups. If
you don't have the direct contacts with companies that need work done, make
friends with other, more established, developers who do, and subcontract for
them.

Also, perhaps others' experiences differ, but since I left engineering for web
development, I've not had a single contract that started with a resume. I
would think that if you showed people the apps you've built, your resume would
be moot.

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camz
Maybe consider trying to work for a startup where you'll be challenged to
understand and solve practical problems. Sounds like you want to feel utilize
and see your effect on a company besides being a cog.

I've had a similar experience in the past being laid-off and then starting a
whole new opportunity.

------
danilocampos
> working with advance web service consumption.

From a strictly technical perspective, I can help you here. Others have
already done the hard work.

Here's TouchCode for parsing just about everything:

<http://github.com/schwa/touchcode>

Here's ASIHTTPRequest for pulling down any file from anywhere:

<http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest/>

And here's MPOAuth for OAuth:

<http://code.google.com/p/mpoauthconnection/>

Then go hunting around for things with public APIs. Netflix, Facebook,
Twitter, solve a problem there.

The rest is getting out there and communicating with people. I've gotten my
last two jobs through being part of internet communities (Twitter and HN, if
curious). It's about building trust so people understand you're the real deal.
It's not easy and I don't have guidance anywhere as clear on that part of it.
Worst of all, it feels like luck when it finally happens, so it's hard to give
yourself a pat on the back. Are you getting out into the world and talking to
people?

