₦airaland Forum

I have always been the type that doesn’t like jumping on trends, but mehn vibe coming has come to stay and even getting outrageously better over time. However, I feel for an experienced dev you are at more advantage using these tools than a newbie or those “no-code” obsessed fellows.

I jumped on Google’s Antigravity recently and I must say, for experienced devs who feel they can keep coding their way out all the time, there’s a lot they are missing. Prompting is not as easy as people see it. Using these tools takes a lot of planning, setting rules and boundaries, carefully mapping what you want and don’t, then you sit back and monitor.

These AI agents are already is most IDEs, refactoring codes and suggesting fixes, generating boilerplates and more. They actually don’t make coding easy, they make a coder’s life easier. This is the future.

elipheleh:
This is my 15 year in tech. I started while in University.

When going into tech, HAVE A GOAL.

I had apps I needed to use. But no money to pay a coder to do it for me. So what did I do? I built it myself. That's how I started learning programming.

I built apps I use. My first ever app I built for myself was big and took me 3 - 5 years to do.

I later sold it for $5k. POOR. But who cares. Solved my needs - my 1st car purchase.

The current app I am building now earns me cool money every day. Its been 2 years of building it. And I still add more to it till today.
It makes me cool money daily.
Today alone it made me about $1k.

Am I still looking for tech jobs? Probably. Maybe I will own tech giant company.

My approach to tech is: Tech is for my own consumption. Not just for looking for jobs.



Do I know as all things? NO

I just learnt enough to get the job done.

Tech is more of your mind to solve problems and visualize steps I solving problems. Then put it into codes. Any how you achieve that is enough.

Infact I've forgotten some languages I learnt before

Does that mean I can't code again in them or even any new language? NO.

I can still get back on them. Theres a way to think when writing programs. And that is the most important thing.


So, is tech a scam?

NO.

TECH IS NOT A SCAM.

APPROACH IT LIKE AN ENTERPRENEUR.

DON'T BUILD USELESS PROJECTS YOU DON'T NEED, JUST TO HAVE A PORTFOLIO.

BUILD ONLY WHAT WILL GIVE YOU MONEY.

DON'T RUSH YOURSELF. YOU WILL GET THERE.

Thank you for taking your time to share. Mindset matters a lot when learning or going into tech and the fail-safe way is being business minded.

Not everybody gets to work with a big tech co but there are a lot of tools and 2d game ideas you could build as a solo developer and earn from them. Last year, I made over 35m from a single app from the comfort of my village though not as much as I still dream and work hard for but then its something. Lot of stuffs I have learnt as well which I could not even remember learning until I need to use the knowledge for a project. Just last week I got a reminder from AWS for a cloud developer certification renewal I took years back and never applied to jobs for but the knowledge alone has helped me scale personal projects. What I am trying to say in short is the business is tech still doing wonders if as a developer you bother yourself less about the trends flying around until you really need to apply their uses.

Tech no fit cast abeg, na reality that its not for everybody just they fall people hand day by day.

I'm a registered Civil Engineer turned a Mobile Dev. Wetin make I call myself my guy

Do a market research. That should give you an insight.

But IMO you should have done that before investing your time on development.

Cheers.

Buddy0:
I have a simple project where the client needs a straightforward mobile interface to interact with an LLM. The client already has mockups for the two app screens.

This needs to be done very quickly, so I’m looking for someone experienced who has worked on similar projects before — not someone who will be learning on the job.

Hit me up with the details. contact@shudbloomng.com

Buddy0:
I have a simple project where the client needs a straightforward mobile interface to interact with an LLM. The client already has mockups for the two app screens.

This needs to be done very quickly, so I’m looking for someone experienced who has worked on similar projects before — not someone who will be learning on the job.

Hit me up with the project details. contact@shudbloomng.com

.

mrsiso:
Hello Team,

I have been working on an education app that is modified into game and meant to make education engaging and interesting.

One thing makes this game interesting, the reward structure which is out of this world, but my challenge is getting it on play store, been working towards getting it on Play Store but seems luck is against me.

This innovative idea can help reduce social vices among youth especially based on how the game is structured, any educated person will want to play, kindly help with possible solutions, I am here to learn how to go about this, I haven't violated any google policy I have gone through all available policies and I am not seeing any problems.

The IT guy I contracted handed over since last year and I am stuck here, please help.

After the first review, what was their reason(s) for rejecting the app? You should start from there.

You’re very right bro. Oya give us what to do na

No termination is wrongful. It’s clearly stated by google that your account will be terminated after recurrent app suspension or rejection.

Go through the reasons stated when the app was suspended and read carefully. If possible google search it has someone else must have had such issues before.

Whoever uploads your app even by changing the name will eventually get terminated. Stop saying it’s a wrongful termination.


What’s the app about anyways?

DissTroy:
It would burst. Most people hear "techie" and they assume there's immediate millions to be made from getting jobs.

If the endpoint of learning tech skills is to build products which are sustainable, you won't worry about any bubble. I don't.

Get gigs to help bootstrap what you're building. Then when it takes off, you can concentrate on scaling it without worrying about any layoffs. But all of you want quick bucks without wanting to build actual products. Just going through the motions with wages being the only goal.

Even if it's a productised tech service, build it.

Word! Really I can’t understand why you would be a software developer and you can’t come up with something that would earn you cash on a daily even if you have a 9-5.

Hi, like someone above mentioned buy the Udemy Courses by Stephane for AWS.

If you’re not in a hurry, wait till mid of the year and enroll for Stanbic IBTC Disep Program. It’s a scholarship and they’ll pay fully for your certifications for AWS/AZURE.

It’s expensive, but if you have the resources and the you can get the Udemy courses by Stephane then you’re good to go.

Best Wishes.

A lot is evolving around mobile development. Most programming languages are evolving to make the idea-to-market more easier and faster. But I can tell you for free native mobile development is not dieing but rather evolving.

Talk about Apple, with Swift(plus Swift UI) you can build an app that runs on all Apple Devices regardless of screen sizes. Android with Kotlin and Compose UI has also made native Android development faster and easier.

Major issue about cross platform development has always been the hardware differences, not the business logic which is usually the same across all platforms. And with these core native languages moving towards declarative UIs, there’s no limit to what is achievable.

People have usually bent towards Flutter and React Native for cross platform mobile development, but if you are following the trend you will know the time is coming where “the sweet and easy” swift and kotlin would surpass them.

If you’re learning mobile dev in 2024, just stick with SwiftUI and ComposeUI and you are good.

…My Opinion.

InteliJ:
Naso

If you want to make this kind of comment, please show workings.

What have you yourself built? Atleast, people reading your comment can get motivation and pick your brain on what to build.

Everytime "build product". Na when you start you go know wetin you don put hand into lmao

it is easier to get a job and earn than to build products and earn. And i'm not even talking from what I heard, I'm talking from real life experience.

You can't even be broke and build a product that will start paying you.

If you're reading this, get a job/contract/client (anything that will give you money) first. Later, you can build a product. E get why.

It’s funny you quoting me and at the same time, your comment shows you have seen couple of my comments on here.

I’m not here to give inspiration to anyone. Neither am I here to ginger anyone. Lots of ideas to build upon and from of the previous post on here we were pointing at some very few niches typical Nigerians would voluntarily pay for e.g betting, porn etc. I’m not here to market what I have worked on. This is not the right platform. I can’t be pointing them out, I don’t work for any organization neither. I am a self employed tech-prenuer. I didn’t learn tech out of passion or whatever folks call it lately, i learnt it for the money and to provide solutions people would voluntarily pay to use.


If I want advertise I have the right platforms to pay for that and the targeted audience (not Nigerians)

In short my bro, find a problem and provide aa solution and make money soft. Forget abt the tech jargons here and there. No tech company is out there to boast about their backend but the product they’ve got to offer.

It’s simple, think like a businessman than a tech enthusiast. Peace my bro.


N.B: you can be broke and build a product that would pay you millions, and I am talking from experience. Only if you know how much people make from Ads targeting US/UK/Canada and co.

Una go just dey worry about techs lol.

Build products!! Think like a business man. Build something people will pay you to use. Even if it’s to build and put ads on it.

If you want to work for big tech companies fine, but not everyone gets such opportunities.

A junior mobile developer with couple of meaningful and bug-free apps earn close if not even more than a bank manager just from Adverts. Lol Poverty no dey tire una?

Paystack:
They're limits to softwares Nigerians find useful or willing to pay for.



Only Fintech and social media products can survive Nigerian market

What fintechs charge avearge Nigerians by subscriptions? I don't believe there is any. Except if you as using their SDKs, APIs and Payment links and they even charge by every transactions.

And how many average Nigerians pay for social media apps? Except you are an influencer or using the platform for business.


I understand why OP must feel bad about this issue he/she raised. No every developer has to work for an organization. There are many solo Developers making thousands of dollars from their apps in top countries like US or UK. The few here in Nigeria has to make an app targeting these countries to make such amount from here.

In-App subscriptions aside, you would make much more if your app is targeting a US/UK/Canada market with a free app showing Adverts and with just 1000 users than same app targeting Nigeria/African Countries/India with 10,000 users. Why? User in those countries has more tendency to click and Ad and buy.

It's simple, people would rather hold that cash than let go even if the app is useful to them here in Nigeria. They would rather hit your review section with bad comments asking why they have to pay for it and not free for use. The purchasing power is next to nothing.

If it's not Betting, Porn and any other thing they cannot be proud to say in public that they paid for, forget it.

PS: We are talking about average Nigerians. Not folks using Paystack, Flutterwave etc. for one business or the other. Let's all rest abeg, just simply think like a business man out to make money than like a Developer, if you wan chop with your skills.

YoungCabal:
I love your honesty ! That's just the pure truth, Nigerians don't like paying for apps. It's obvious from your response, it's out of shear stinginess not because you can't afford it, I wonder why we are like this, we don't like paying for apps and we would rather spam than pay for ads, it's why we can never have homegrown companies like the big microsoft, openai and the likes, the western part of the world has a culture for paying apps and that has been used to fuel innovation across the whole world, we will continue to remain behind for many years if you continue thinking everything that doesn't entertain you should be free, this attitude is why when AI are trained, less relevance is given to us, it's why our accounts are easily suspended on most platforms for very little offenses and most times when apps are launched, we are the last on the list to get to use it.

Bro you don’t have to be angry, but your observation is valid. I have an app I made freemium for about a year. Few months ago I removed the Watch Ads to Use option and made it strictly subscriptions as Google took the app down from their store for some reasons. The number of emails I get from Nigerians and Indians on a daily asking stupid questions complaining why is the app no longer free is just too much. I no kuku send.

Best market is US by far. Those folks don’t mind and they will always take time to give honest reviews on your app. Only time most Nigerians take time to post a review na to complain.

gistray:
Non of this worked.


I found out what worked already albeit a hectic and cumbersome process that involved me downloading and unpacking Palmpay raw apk to see what the heck they where doing

Kindly share what you found.

gistray:
I'll definitely give this a try.

But what if the app wasn't downloaded from play store or the user haven't logged into playstore?

Thank u.

If the app is not on PlayStore and downloaded from the web the app can still call the AdvertisingClient to get the ID since it has been programmed so. I’m really not sure if it’s PlayStore alone I was only guessing it could be tied to PlayStore user instance. However, I have seen some cases where the client returns a generic ID something like 000000.

Be sure to test for your requirements.

gistray:
You're speaking In parables


I told u even if the app data and cookies are cleared the app is still able to know the device has been used... Where else are the tokens stored?

Only factory reset works as at now

Hi. Have you tried resetting the AdvertisingID? I have used it once for an app to limit content. Clearing app data or reinstalling wouldn’t work until you do a hard reset of the device or reset the ads id.

Even Google uses the ads id for ads tracking thats how they serve targeted ads. It’s wrong though according to Android best practices if you are not using it for Ads related purposes. I have shared a link. Try all the possible ways highlighted there it definitely should be one of those.

Updated: I’m no sure even resetting the device would work as I believe it’s tied to your PlayStore account. So signing in same Google Play Store account should restore the previous AdvertisingID. I have not tested that before, you should.


PS: Don’t use this for illegal purposes oo. If you collect loan go pay am

[url] https://developer.android.com/training/articles/user-data-ids[/url]

Congratulations on your japa boss. More achievements!

airsaylongcome:
So don’t get me wrong, I understand Devops and Cloud Computing are two different sometimes overlapping field. I am talking from my own experience where my employers have hired Cloud Associates with the aim of training them into Devops folks. The Ghanaian infact had absolutely no clue what he wanted to do but had gone ahead at his cost to get AWS certified. Management saw that as someone trainable and hired him real quick. I’m not a Devops guy but if I had to make a switch, I’m not sure I need more than 6 months of self training.

And you seemed to take my comment about “drive” as an insult. I will illustrate with an example. I’m December 2020, the Nigerian company I was working with folded up and I was out of job. March 2021 a medical practice was starting up and needed a telephony solution. The owner was coming from the US and while I had played around with VOIP, I had absolutely no idea what it took to install and manage one. There was ₦2m on the table for this project. And I had just very minimal telephony frontend knowledge. In three weeks, I had gone from almost no knowledge to intermediate knowledge planning, deploying and configuring a business telephony system. Was I an expert in that short time? No. But I had enough competence to get the phones reliably working to the point they started asking for.some fancy setups. Hunger was my drive. I was looking at the prospect of being fed by other people or "die there" while trying to feed myself.

I get your point and really didnt't take the "drive" part of your comment as an insult. I was only trying to make a point out, and like I said it's a starting point have a cloud certification, and I may not be the HR who hired the Ghanaian, but I am sure he had more to bring to the table than just the certification.

I work on my own, not everyone gets to work for an organization. Anything I need to run for my business or for a client, I self-learn. It's simply in the context of the discussion I had to point out it goes way beyond just the certification, drive yea maybe, but also what you have been able to gather from months to years of working with other stacks.

The OP was saying why don't people consider other tech fields aside from programming, especially non-programming ones e.g DevOps, there was an argument about how entry-level friendly it may be, and I still insist on the fact that DevOps is not entry-level friendly. You may say you can take up DevOps in six months or less, would you say the same for someone who has never written a line of code before? Or someone who just started out learning HTML+CSS? It's possible yes, but if I have to employ such persons I would decline. Even AWS recommends taking each certification exams after a year of hands-on and familiarizing with the tools, still does not mean people go by that. I had 3 AWS certifications in 2 months highest of them was the Cloud Dev Associate. Not like it's what I wanted at the time, yet the knowledge has been very helpful lately.

In summary I am saying DevOps is not what you can jump on because they say it's non-programming which practically it is. I had severally time self-learning DevOps and I can say for a fact it is not entry-level friendly, but very possible with a year plus of learning. Didnt learn to get employed full-time, but as knowledge I can apply in my day-to-day.

airsaylongcome:
You do know that entry level is 0-3years experience right? And that in an entry level devops role you are mostly working building lab setups and rarely do you even get to touch staging or testing setups.

And that businesses hire people into entry level devops role purely to train them on their devops tools and processes. If someone with an AWS Cloud Associate program cannot hold down an entry level DevOps role I strongly doubt their drive. I would expect that such person has his small homelab where they are basically messing about with all of their knowledge and all. I can tell you the last time I worked with windows. Or even a GUI. Not because I have to work with CLI, but because I know my competence and muscle memory would increase if I stick with CLI. I tell you straight up that there are entry level roles for Devops

I don't know if you know but Cloud Computing is totally different from DevOps. AWS Cloud Developer Associate certification can give you a heads up as per being comfortable with cloud tools but bro DevOps goes beyond. There are other AWS Certifications that are more DevOps focus but it's a ladder you need to climb gradually, and mind you AWS certifications are tough ask anyone in you circle who has written one. AWS Cloud Practitioner na child's play.

About the drive, thanks bro I am comfortable where I am atm. I was only considering DevOps (Lol!). I'm a full-time Mobile Dev and I delve into new stuffs every now and then, it was a scholarship and I couldn't say no. But yet, all my resources are now hosted on AWS, thats where the knowledge came handy, and AWS or is not what you can just jump on even with a practitioner certification.

So back to the discussion, I only quoted you to point out DevOps go way beyond Cloud computing certifications, though it's a good starting point doesn't mean it's easy going forward. You can't even make a Docker container if you don't know how Front-end and Backend work LoL! say less automating testing and building to deploy. I delved in a bit but really I am comfortable where I am atm, drive or no drive.

niel63:
Devops is definitely NOT and entty level role. Just know this and know peace.
All these CI/CD verbs... who you think say dey use them... Still, it isn't enough to make you a competent devops engineer. It's a combination of both practices and tools for applications and services.

And you know how tedious it can be to master one.
So, devops can never ever be an entry role.

I agree with you. There’s a lot to cover to get the “entry roles” you see around for DevOps and they are not that easy to grasp for entry level devs.

airsaylongcome you mentioned going through AWS cloud computing courses but sincerely that still wouldn’t make it easier for anyone getting into DevOps. I got the AWS Cloud Developer Associate sometime last year and afterwards I was considering switching to DevOps, bro it was just a scratch on the surface for DevOps even though experience with cloud tools is usually a requirement.

There’s a lot to cover and grasp and you have to be hands-on forget the non-programming thing. To actually get a lot done you need to be on CLI and Text Editors. You need a lot of Linux, be comfortable with Python, YAML and so on.

The scholarship has started. They sent out emails on Sunday/Monday. You can log in to Coursera to confirm if you didn't receive any email, as you should find the courses already there for you to enroll.

Compose has stable versions already. It's new and it's improving. Kotlin works pretty fine with Android views. I haven't migrated fully to compose as well, but if I was to be learning Android Development in 2023 it definitely would be with Kotlin. I learnt Java first about 6yrs ago.

I would advise OP if it's Android you have in mind, go Kotlin. Compose is still coming big that would even make Kotlin fully SwiftUI compatible if you decide to take iOS Development in future.

If you however have this nice and cool idea and need to hit the market ASAP, you can consider React Native or Flutter (both are multiplatform atm, even Kotlin is but I would advice learning SwiftUI as a Kotlin Android Dev for multiplatform development)

One cent!

qtguru:
I've read conflicting issues, some top Android devs found bugs in Compose, Android View still works but it seems newbies have to know both just to be safe. Java and Kotlin

Why would you even want to learn Android Development with Java as a new Dev?

Just focus on Kotlin!

You're not to old. Programming is for everyone but sadly, not everyone can be a programmer.

You can be sound academically and be a shitty coder if you cannot be logical in the way you think.

But it's not the end, and I'm not trying to discourage you. Start from the very basics, html is a good start and then you move up from there. But then age is not on your side. If you have the determination, you will get there some day.

Or simply change your track. Programming is not the only paying IT skills anymore.

Nice one bro. What language?

You should get a Domiciliary Account that way you wouldn't even need all these wallets flying around milking people. Reach out if you still need help with getting it.

Leaving passion aside and making money the primary motivation. Think business, not the tech.

For starters, when choosing what to build for portfolio projects, choose something marketable and useful for other users. Something they would want to pay for to use (premium or freemium) and target the US market. Sincerely some $100/$200 monthly from couple of apps will keep you motivated while you prepare the big guns.