How to Become an iOS Developer in 2023: Job Description, Pay, and Requirements
When deciding on a career path, aspiring software engineers should take a number of things into account. Salary and job advancement rank among the most important factors. With an average national pay of $114,614, iOS developers rank among the best-paid IT professionals in terms of earning potential. You’ll need to master a few iOS developer abilities if you want to succeed in this field.
The App Annie 2017-2022 App Industry Forecast Report estimates that the number of mobile device installs will reach six billion by 2022, up 56 percent from 2017. Even more astonishingly, consumer spending on apps will soar to $157 billion annually, up 92% from 2017.
With these figures, it is understandable why so many software professionals opt for a career in iOS software development. There are various pathways you can take if you decide to pursue iOS development, but in this post, we’ll concentrate on the abilities needed. But let’s address the most important query first.
An iOS developer is what?
A person who has a thorough understanding of the iOS environment, including how it functions on various Apple products including the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, is known as an iOS developer. They must, in essence, be aware of how to create and modify apps within the iOS environment.
How to Become a Developer for iOS
You can find an iOS skills matrix, like the one below, if you do a little investigation. The talents one has to possess at various levels in order to become a senior iOS developer are listed in this particular iOS skills matrix. The matrix is specific enough to give you a sense of the iOS developer talents you need to possess while being intentionally ambiguous to prevent canonizing any particular field of expertise. In other words, it should only be utilised as a roadmap to direct your course.
We’ll go over the fundamental iOS skills you must master in this post if you want to become an iOS developer, find employment, or create your own iOS applications.
Learn Swift first
Programming proficiency is one of the most essential abilities an iOS app developer must possess. Depending on the talents you already possess, the skills you will learn most quickly, and even the skills that will allow you to shift your software/app development expertise to other ecosystems besides iOS development, these iOS developer skills can vary greatly.
For instance, you may utilize your knowledge of Java programming to create apps for iOS as well as Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows. Training for a java exam is a great alternative to consider if you have time or financial restrictions and think that you may eventually switch from developing for iOS to other platforms or ecosystems. Back-end, front-end, or full-stack developer training may be a better alternative if you enjoy software programming, have the necessary time and money, and still plan to explore other ecosystems besides iOS. For instance, you may learn how to create an iOS application that utilizes Angular, a component of the MEAN stack.
Using programming languages designed for iOS and the Apple ecosystem is your best chance, even though there are a variety of programming talents that may be hire iphone app developer. Swift is the programming language to concentrate on if you are beginning to code for the first time or want to concentrate solely on iOS and Apple development.
The best approach for learning Swift and the iOS platform is to start with the fundamentals of Swift, move on to more complex ideas, and then finish with the iOS platform. This strategy is based on the idea that most iOS developers frequently attempt to master both Swift and iOS at the same time but typically end up feeling lost and unable to comprehend either.
In this regard, learning the following is the best-advised course of action:
Simple ideas. comprising operators, constants, strings, numbers, and variables
Collections. incorporating arrays and dictionaries
Control flow diagrams. include if-else, switches, and for/while loops
interfaces and types. including protocols, methods, structures, enumerations, and other elements
and principles for object-oriented programming. including polymorphism, classes, and inheritance
Understand the iOS Platform in Step 2
Studying the expansive iOS platform, which is made up of various design patterns, frameworks, and other technologies comes after studying Swift. Even if you choose to learn a different programming language than Swift to create iOS apps, you will still need to comprehend how the iOS ecosystem functions.
As with anything you want to become an expert at, the best course of action is to begin by studying the fundamentals. You won’t be able to employ increasingly fascinating technology, like augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, or even create games if you don’t grasp the fundamentals. More significantly, if you don’t grasp the fundamentals, you won’t have the skills necessary to find work or create applications that users will want to use.
In light of this, the following are some of the foundational skills you’ll need to acquire on the iOS platform:
Learn about “Apple Developer” (formerly known as the Apple Developer Connection or ADC) in general. The tools you need to create software for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS are available in Apple Developer.
Deepen your knowledge of Interface Builder and Xcode. The integrated development environment, or IDE, that you need to create software for iOS and other Apple products is called Xcode. You need a computer running macOS in order to use Xcode. You may develop iOS interfaces with the help of Interface Builder (graphical user interface).
Layout automatically. You can create user interfaces for various-sized devices by getting to know how to use Auto Layout in Xcode.
perspectives of tables. Another crucial element of the user interface that can assist you in managing lengthy scrolling lists in iOS apps is table views.
Storyboards and containers. Your iOS app’s screen navigation flow may be developed with the use of containers, and it can be designed and organized using storyboards.
Don’t worry if all of these ideas and instruments right now seem like strange words to you. You may quickly become familiar with the various tools and design models if you only start by getting an overview of them.
It’s also crucial to note that the UIKit framework, which was unveiled at the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), was recently replaced by SwiftUI, which includes all of the aforementioned capabilities.
Step 3: Upgrade Your Expertise With Key iOS Development Competencies
It’s time to broaden your expertise in other areas to give your apps a polished professional appearance now that you have a solid understanding of coding and the environment in which you create iOS apps. Studying these topics will enable you to advance your knowledge and finally become an expert.
You can hone your expertise in a variety of fields. To get a sense of what you need to know, have a look at the iOS skills matrix above. Also, having a solid understanding of the following topics will greatly aid you in your iOS development endeavors:
Databases
The majority of contemporary programs, including iOS apps, store and retrieve data using databases. It might be really helpful to have knowledge of databases and the query languages that are used to modify data if you want to advance in iOS programming.
Networking
The majority of contemporary iOS apps need data to be transferred back and forth over the internet. As a result, an iOS developer needs to be familiar with how the internet functions. Fortunately, iOS makes it simple by offering SDKs with a variety of APIs for making network queries. You must be familiar with the DNS system, URLs, and other basic networking principles in addition to these APIs.
Get Started on Your iOS Development Career by Learning iOS Skills
The path to becoming an iOS developer is not simple. Gaining expertise in a field needs effort, perseverance, and time. Fortunately, there are several tools at your disposal, like training programs, to guide you toward being the developer you desire. The iOS Developer Certification Training from Aspired is a fantastic solution for showcasing your expertise to potential employers. You will be well on your way to benefiting from all the potential that working as an iOS developer has to offer if you take the time to learn the skills described above.
