Starting this challenge

Hi guys! My name is Miguel and I’d love to become an iOS developer. I’m qualified as a Telecommunications Engineer, I coded in the past (Python), but I haven’t coded again for more than ten years ago. I’m considering becoming a CWC+ member and I’d appreciate it whether you could help me with the following questions. First, how long do you reckon it will take me to become a junior iOS developer? Second, in addition to getting the right development skills, do your training courses include any lessons regarding how to rewrite my CV, apply for developer positions and prepare job interviews? The last one, which Mac laptop would you recommend to start this journey? Many thanks in advance. Cheers!

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Considering you’ve coded before, even if it was a while ago, I think it could take a couple of months. But it’s different for everyone and how well you pick it up

I am actually not 100% positive on this, but the community is great and you can definitely find these resources as you go

Any Mac works! The base model 14” or 16” is totally fine. But like anything the higher specs, the better/faster.
My main machine is a 2016 MBP (it has an i5 processor and only 8GB of RAM and has been fine for me so far)

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Many thanks @mikaelacaron

Yeah, if you need help, you can always post here, and get great responses! I ran across another person learning iOS development as well with the same goal: become a Junior Developer. He’s also pivoted (@Philomath), and I shared with him someone on Twitter, who used to be a senior iOS dev at Apple, who gives away free time every week to help others prep for iOS development interviews:

Meanwhile, I have the goal of releasing my own app. I have similar background in telecommunications/ Python. You can read more about me here:

However, getting CWC+ was one of the best investments of my life. Through this, I met another awesome person @CalStark who is also releasing an app soon :slight_smile:

It’s one of the most vibrant communities I’ve been a part of. You won’t regret signing up!

On this, I just had to upgrade, because my 2014 Mac became too slow. Praise God I waited as long as I did too, because Apple released an industry-shattering new laptop in 2020 built on their own chipset (versus Intel).

The M1 MacBook (Air or Pro) broke through all types of records in terms of compute power, and the charge needed. The new simple architecture versus the complicated architecture of the Intel based chipsets makes a huge difference! I’m able to have 16 hours of battery life, listening to music and coding, before my M1 dies.

Also, instead of waiting two minutes for my project’s in Xcode to build as before (in iOS development you build the app, then run it on a Simulator), it now takes 10 seconds on the M1. I got one with 16 GB of RAM for an extra $200. However, the base model is a steal, and its eight GB should serve you well. I highly recommend getting this model.

See here for an interesting history of the Intel versus Apple Silicon chipset as well. It took them decades to get where they are, and the performance is astounding!! It’s the greatest innovation I’ve seen in hardware in years:

Cheers, thanks for posting, and may God bless you on this fruitful journey!

Andrew

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Just popping in here to say “thanks” for this summary.

I’m currently struggling along with an old Late-2014 Mac mini. I have no way to replace this right now, but I’ve been eyeing the M1 MacBook Air enviously. I’ve been wondering whether the base model would be any good, given how badly Xcode / Simulator struggles on my “reasonably well-spec’d” Mac mini, or whether I’d need to be looking at a higher spec.

You’ve pretty much answered that question for me, so thanks for that!

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In my opinion, I think it depends on how much time you have to dedicate to learning. If you can set aside time every day to learn, then a couple months will get you a long way. I would recommend completing all the quizzes and challenges. And THEN also applying what you learn to building your own app. Because nothing points out what you don’t understand faster than working on an app from scratch.

As of right now, I haven’t seen any courses specifically on this. However, like @RedFox1 said, the community is great. If you’re willing to reach out like you just did here, people are super kind and generous. Just like how RedFox shared a bunch of resources with me, the community is always willing to help with questions or point toward other sources.

I just wanted to second what RedFox said. While any Mac will work, one with better specs makes a huge difference. I recently upgraded to a newer Mac, and it makes a huge difference while using Xcode. So keep that in mind.

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I use the m1 macbook air with 8gb ram and it runs extremely fast.
The only issue I have encountered with this is that if I load up a very heave game like modded Minecraft it heats up after a while and performance throttles slightly.
In terms of xcode tho its lightning fast even when I have a couple of projects and multiple tabs open

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You make me wish I had one!

Thanks for the positive recommendation of it. One day it’ll be mine! :grinning:

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