Hi, I'm Sidwyn. I've been reading this blog and decided to contribute something.
As some of you know, the NUS High iPhone app was released two months back. I'm the developer of the app and am happy to see so many students and staff using it.
Alot of people have been asking me how I did it, so instead of answering one by one, let me detail my experience here..
I started out in May 2010. I was an iPhone addict at that time and would always purchase the latest Apple gadgets. One day, I randomly chanced upon a local company site that taught iPhone development. I signed up to be a trainer (and actually signed a contract) without any prior experience in coding iPhone apps.
Before I knew it, I was offered a class that would take place a week just after APs. I hesitated but still took up the job. So after mugging APs, I went to learn how to develop iPhone applications. (I used Stanford lectures, which are all free and available on iTunes U). In the end, I had a lot of fun teaching the class, and received very good feedback from them.
In July this year, I had some spare time on hand (my internship hadn't started then), and decided to work on an iPhone app for NUS High. The main problem that existed was that students had to go to the staffroom to check the number of the teacher they wanted to contact. I decided to simplify things, take all the numbers and put them into an app so they would be able to call directly from the app. I threw in some extra functions, bundled it all together and submitted it to the App Store. Took me about 40 hours in total, but it probably saved students more time than that.
Moving forward to today, I am now working with a San Francisco startup (Seesmic) on a Twitter and Facebook iPhone app. Balancing school, teaching students and work is definitely not easy, but I love it. I also earn quite abit of pocket money now :P
To sum up my post in three points:
- Follow your passion. I was interested in computers in general.
- There's lots of free content out there. Google is your best friend.
- Balance and prioritize your time well.
I'm in my last semester at this school now and looking forward to larger opportunities. I hope this post has been beneficial. If anything, please feel free to drop me an email at sidwyn@gmail.com. I would be more than happy to share my experience with you.
P.S. If you haven't downloaded the app, check it out here now! http://bit.ly/nushighapp.
Some other links:
Seesmic for iPhone (my current company) - http://seesmic.com/seesmic_mobile/iphone/
Stanford iPhone Programming Lectures - http://itunes.stanford.edu/
Made a promotional video as well that was disallowed by the school. Apparently, they say it "reaches the wrong audience".
Check it out anyway:
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