No Experience Necessary — How to get started in remote work for mobile developers Eli Bucher Follow Mar 25 · 3 min read

I currently spend my time traveling the world skiing and climbing. USA, Canada, Japan, Spain, Germany, France, Greece and Madagascar all in the past 12 months; All while working a job I love.

Getting My First Job

When I started looking for my first job in mobile development here was my resume:

High school Junior (16 years old)

No formal Computer Science education

No app released only a few completed small side projects

Currently in school so need flexible hours

Looking to learn about Android dev on the job

If I had gone to a recruiter with these requirements and skills they would have laughed at me. I needed a way to make myself appealing to businesses.

I wanted to make an Android app so I went to Apple App Store and looked for popular games that I thought I was capable of making and did not have an Android version.

I found an Anagram game with nice graphics, decent game play and thousands of reviews and downloads. I sent an email to the developers explaining the follow:

I am an Android developer

I love your app and would like to develop it for Android

A video of a simple Android mockup of the game to prove I could develop the mechanics

All you have to give me is the app assets (image files) and a portion of the future revenue

For the company there are only two scenarios if they hire me:

A. I fail to make the app. All they have lost is the half an hour it took to send me the graphics.

B. I succeed and they essentially get a free Android version of their app minus the revenue share.

I made the downside to hiring me non-existent while also adding a lot of potential value. When you look at things this way it’s really not surprising that they agreed to my proposal even with my terrible resume and demanding requirements for flexible remote work.

Results

I learned so much from making this app. I got professional app development experience and remote work experience. I had no mentor or formal education so my code was terrible but it worked. I learned to do everything from the first lines to releasing on the play store.

The entire time I was motivated by the fact that the iOS version had 1000’s of installs and reviews. I was pretty sure this meant the Android version would be successful as well.

After releasing to the store it was slow growth but eventually we got on some top charts and ended up getting a few million game plays over the coming years. Although there were paid upgrade options and ads in the app I never made tons of money from the app even though it was popular.

After this I had the most amazing portfolio piece. A completed and released app that I developed by myself with 1000’s of good reviews. I was easily able to get tech internships while still in highschool where everyone else was in college or recent college grad.

TL;DR

I believe anyone wanting to get their foot in the door and start working as a mobile developer could follow my formula:

Find a semi popular app only available on one store

Program a simple mockup of the app to prove competency

Contact company, show them the mockup and offer to make the app for revenue share

Make and release the app

You probably won’t get rich from this app but I guarantee you will learn a ton and open up so many opportunities in the future.

If you found this interesting and want to hear more about my non-traditional career development, let me know.