Three tips for new ios developers, which lead to a five percent pay rise.
Introduction
Believe it or not, companies don’t expect too much from a rookie developer. Most Developers will be qualified as a true developer after three or five years of their experience. But why are they hiring you? Because they think you have potential for being a qualified developer.
So, basically what we need is not fancy techniques but the most fundamental knowledges which will be the backbone of our career.
Participated in interviews as an interviewer a few times, I was shocked that so many rookie interviewees were obsessed with their fancy techniques and neglect the most basic things we were looking for. Interviewees were talking about ‘MVVM’, ‘RxSwift’, ‘Combine’ and ‘MVVM’ Architecture, while they didn’t know the current version of Swift language and Xcode.
I’m not saying that architecture patterns and apple’s new frameworks are not important. But those interests are only valid when you stick to the fundamentals.
Question #1 — What is the current version of Swift?
The current Swift Version is 5.5.3, but it’s generally OK when you say it’s 5.5. Why such a trivial question is important? Because knowing the current version of Swift simply indicates you’re more likely to write maintainable code. Just think about it. Would you hire a developer who doesn’t know which version of the language he/she is writing? What do you think?
Question #2 — What is the latest Xcode you have used and available?
The latest Xcode Version is 13. You can express yourself with your recent experience. Though Xcode has a bad reputation, we don’t have choice as a iOS developer. Talk about what features you used for productivity in Xcode. Listen, the important thing here is not what you know about Xcode features but the hidden quality as a developer.
Question #3 — What’s new in latest iOS?
iOS platform is evolving fast. Sometimes, you need to re-write your entire codebase as version increases. Being able to respond quickly to new things is therefore so important. If you can say some new features with confidence, It will be a huge indicator that you are a good developer. But don’t be burdened, you don’t need to know all new features but say what you’re interested in.
Bonus Question, What is the difference and why swift is better than Objective-C?
Warning! This question is not as important as three questions described above. But still many open source libraries are written in Objective-C and many iOS frameworks work on Objective-C. It’s an optional question. If you want to know the answer, here are the lists.
- Simple to read and learn
- Less Code
- Swift is type-safe language
- Auto import of files
- No pointers to confuse
- Better Memory Management
- Optionals make application crash free
- Faster and Safer
- Swift is Modern and Protocol Oriented Programming Language
Conclusion
That’s it! It’s that simple. But sometimes, simplicity leads to great result. You don’t need to be super-well prepared as you are just beginning your career. But stick to the basics! This will make an impact throughout your career.
