As a CS student, why do you write a program? To learn data structures, good coding practices and algorithms.
Great. Now try this: write an iPhone app and put it on the App Store. What will you learn? Marketing, customer support, economics, PR.
By the time you graduate with your CS degree, that little App Store adventure may well be what sets you ahead of all the other candidates to land your dream job.
What does it cost you? You need to pay $99 to Apple to become a registered iPhone developer. And you may even recoup some of that investment if someone buys your app.
Strike that. You will know that you passed the class when you recoup that investment tenfold. How many other classes you took offer such direct, undisputable grades?
What you will learn:
- Marketing: How do users hear about your app? How can you create some buzz to attract more people? You will learn that having an amazing technical product is nothing if you can’t communicate its value.
- Customer support: You will be forced to look at your product with the eyes of your end user. Is the app really intuitive? How come every user seems to be making the same usability mistake? You will learn to respect your end user and project yourself to code for what they need, not what you think is neat.
- Economics: By now you should be having fun. Some money is coming in. You’d want more. How can you manage that? Maybe it’s time to bring on board another student to help with support or graphics. How much will that cost you? Is that a good return on investment? You will learn to make your own business decisions.
Granted, an MBA teaches more than what I just listed above. But nothing beats hands-on experience and the App Store today is the quickest way for a CS student to get it.
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