How and when did you get into programming? And into iOS?

So interesting fact, I actually never really even thought about programming. I originally wanted to be either a football manager or an ice cream man. But in my high school a career advice person pretty much told me that wasn’t going to happen 😂 and suggested I started looking into IT. So my first dabble with programming was building sites in Dreamweaver and at the time I was thinking, jheeze I know my stuff 😂 So when it came around to applying for college I took up computer science thinking I was going to be an amazing programmer.

I remember buying a programming book (I can’t remember specifically which one). I would write down every function thinking I’d remember them all and this was the best way to learn programming, but once I got my first assignment in binary code I flopped massively and dropped out of computer science 🙃 I changed my course to IT(it was like learning a mixture of internet technologies i.e Radio & Animations etc). I fumbled the bag massively and thought to myself computer science it way to hard and I’m not smart enough for it, I’ll just stick to IT so I stuck to that and graduated from college and went on to study a similar course in university. At the time I was working in a phone shop for the provider O2 and I always thought to myself how do people build the apps on a iPhone.

I remember looking online and the first thing that popped up was Meng To’s Design And Code course. I remember using some of my student money to buy this and at first I had no idea what was going on until one day it just clicked (if you know you know 😉). And just like that I built my first app (Clime, yep another weather app 🤪) and put it on the AppStore for my final year project at Salford University. I think it’s still on the store now but yh that app helped me get my first job and get my door into the world of iOS development so I owe a lot to Meng To for helping me get into this industry for sure.

That is a hell of a story! The Clime app you did as something like general demonstration of mobile apps or did you focus on some specific technology/area?

So I mainly built the clime app to work on what I feel is the core fundamentals of iOS development (lists, apis & databases). I wanted to test myself, showcase skills and use this to help me get a job within the industry

Got it! Btw what was the first version of iOS you built an app for?

I think it was iOS 9 & Swift 2 or 2.1

Do you remember what was challenging to grasp when learning iOS/Swift in the beginning?

For me it was learning how to piece the blocks together, so how do I connect one screen to another or how do I get data and present it onto a screen

What was your first Apple product?

So it was my first phone contract when I worked at the phone shop O2. I got a black iPhone 5 💪🏾

You started a YouTube channel in November 2020. What was the main motivation to beging creating videos?

Loool ok so not to sound like a sob story on X Factor or American Idol but my apartment was robbed. I had nothing else to do and thought to myself why not teach others how to build apps and give back to the community. And i’m loving it and all the support so far.

Damn, sorry to hear that. On the other hand it looks like you found great new passion. How do you select topics for your videos?

Thanks man, and I do a mixture of things, either things I feel are useful for upcoming iOS developers, something interesting I’ve discovered or a challenge which I’ve set myself and want to share my solution

I am curious what does your video setup look like? Do you have an app that helps you a lot to put out videos?

Hahaha my studio is simple and cheap, when it comes to setups. I’m not the most savvy so I keep it simple for myself. Right now I’m using iMovie, QuickTime for screen recording, my iPhone as a camera and a tripod with a camera light my gf got me for Christmas.

This is great, because it shows you don't need super complicated and fancy setup to start putting out videos 👍

Did you notice when mentoring junior iOS developers some common like "troubles" regarding understanding certain parts of programming/iOS or Swift?

Yes so I’ve found a lot of juniors put a lot of pressure on themselves and expect to perform almost like an senior. And my advice is this is your journey, the start of your journey. Use it to learn as much as possible from people who are better than you so they can take you to the next level, you may feel like you don’t know a lot but that’s ok. You’re a sponge and the community & your peers are the buckets of water you’ll learn and soak up knowledge from.

You have a magic wand... and can change one thing about iOS development. What?

It's not really a code change it's more a mindset change, i'd defo let people know iOS development isn’t an easy thing like anything in life. No matter what level you are it’s okay to not know everything, I’m trash at animations 😅 just enjoy the journey, make cool shit, share your work and progress, respect others and connect with others in the tech community 💕

That is a great message! Let's switch gears a bit. What do you do to relax?

So I love to watch Anime, so any Anime peeps gimme a follow and lets chat. I’m also a massive foodie and into football(soccer for anyone from America 😉)

Got it! Curious what your favorite foods are? 🙂

So I was born here in the UK but I consider myself Nigeria tbh so my fav foods are all Nigerian. I love jollof rice, pounded yam & stew, pounded yam & egusi & fried yam with egg and stew

Awesome! Googled these and it looks tasty! Thanks so much for taking the time. Do you want to give someone or something a shoutout?

I’d wanna give my family a shoutout for supporting me to where I am now, MengTo for laying out the foundations for me to get into this industry & everyone who has been supporting my channel tundsdev too 🙌🏾