“I was looking for an app for my work, but it didn’t exist”
Johan grew up in a mid-size town in the middle of Sweden. Near the end of his high school equivalent he was considering a career in web development because he had a growing interest in computers. However, he eventually opted to pursue a career where he could work with children, something he knew he enjoyed.
Johan then moved to Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, and studied to become a grade school teacher. He finished his degree, started working at a school in Gothenburg, and met and eventually moved in with his now wife. A few years later, he and his wife had a kid, got married, and moved to a small town along the beautiful Swedish archipelago down south, where his wife is originally from. Johan and his family still live there, now with two boys and a house, enjoying a peaceful, quiet family life.
Johan started getting interested in iOS development because he was looking for an app for work, but it didn’t exist. So he started researching how hard it would be to build the app himself.
Getting a solid programming foundation
As Johan researched on how to best learn iOS development, he came across a lot of paid iOS app development courses on different platforms that went straight to building, which assumed basic knowledge of the Swift language and programming in general. The problem was that he had neither. It wasn’t until Johan stumbled upon the CWC YouTube channel that he felt at ease in learning the iOS app development basics in an organized manner.
“I felt like the wall of app icons representing others who had learned from CWC gave the channel credibility and made me trust that he knew what he was doing. I’ve also seen it recommended in different places. What drove it home was the fact that he began with the very basics, so I really felt that I was getting a foundation to build upon. Now that I’ve managed to build a solid foundational knowledge of Swift and programming in general. I’d say CWC really set me off to a great start on this exciting journey of learning and creating. While I still have a lot to learn, as we always will in this field, I can now build somewhat complex apps from scratch.”
“I kept on coming back to CWC!”
Johan initially thought that he would only learn the basics of iOS app development from CWC. To his surprise, however, he found himself watching the more advanced topics on the CWC YouTube channel given how well-presented and comprehensive the topics are. Johan has this to say:
“As I started my journey with CWC, I had kind of pegged the channel as a launch pad, a place for beginners to set off. Something that surprised me was the amount of times I found myself back on the CWC channel to learn increasingly advanced topics and technologies. When I needed to integrate Firebase into my project. I found a comprehensive series on that from CWC. The other week I was learning server side Swift from Mikaela Caron and before that I was studying the new async/await concurrency system with Stewart Lynch, which are both on the CWC channel.”
Perseverance does pay off
Johan didn’t let his initial lack of background in programming stop him from sticking to his goal of learning iOS app development and eventually creating an iOS app of his own. His learning journey may have encountered some bumps along the way, but thanks to the supportive CodeCrew community of students and mentors, he eventually found success by releasing his first iOS app, BarTab.
BarTab is a digital system for managing running tabs, made in the style of a cash register. It was originally an app Johan made for himself and for an organization called Round Table that he is a part of. However, he figured that others might have a use for it as well, so he released it as a subscription-based ‘software as a service’. As of today it has 6 active users and is growing steadily!
“Just keep going!”
Johan would have never seen the success of publishing his own iOS app if he simply just gave up on learning iOS app development altogether. It’s here where he emphasizes the importance of having a support system to help students stay on track with their learning goals and also to never rush in learning the most basic concepts. Learning how to code entails a lot of time spent on learning and practicing all of the concepts in order to achieve mastery. Thus, it is highly crucial for learners to take time in firmly mastering their programming foundation first.
Johan has some important words to impart to help you keep going on your iOS app development learning journey:
“Get familiar with the basics. CWC is a great starting point for this. And when you’re learning, don’t just watch and listen. Open Xcode or Playground and try things! Test everything you learn, try changing it and see what happens. You’ll learn more than what the tutorial/video/article covers and it’ll stick better. Programming is a constant series of ups and downs. One day you’ll feel like a genius because the code did exactly what you wanted it to. The next time you’ll feel utterly defeated because you’ve just spent 6 hours on a bug in your app and you still don’t know what line or lines of code is causing it in the first place, much less how to fix it. The important thing to know is to keep going and you’ll eventually get it.”
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