Can I adopt full-time app development in place of a traditional job after college ?

Hello everyone,

This is my first post. I want your opinions about whether it is feasible to not apply for any job after college and instead try to earn enough money through developing android apps by myself independently and publishing them on play store? Is it a good source of income if you are a decent programmer and know how to write a good code and have some above-average app ideas?

Trust me , its more way better if you get a decent job after college

It depends on your living situation and savings. The app market is very random - some people earn a lot, some nothing, it’s sometimes not dependand on the app quality. You could try freelancing as an additional source of income - but normal job gives you a bit of experience that is useful in freelancing. It might also depend on your character - I myself hate working 8 hours a day, so freelancing and app development was excellent solution for me (especially since I had a lot of saving and some experience after 4 years of normal job).

A lot also depends on where you live - I see you have “India” as your location, so your cost living is probably much cheaper than for someone from USA or Norway, meaning it might be easier (as it was for me, in Poland). Normal job gives you a lot of experience though with dealing with problems you encounter.

What I am afraid of is I probably won’t get a job in android development and thus will not get time to work on my apps or improve my android skills. I really like working on android.

If you get a job, you could get to learn how things should be done. Things like continuous integration servers, QA, QC, Testing, best practices, deadlines, feature creep, etc.

That information will be invaluable when you do app development.

You work for 8 hours a day… sleep for 6-8 hours. What will you do with the other 8 hours ? Play a MMORPG … or do Android dev on the side ?

Have you ever been in a startup, started your own company, done freelancing work, and/or done Android development/iOS development before? If so, it might be a little easier to justify such as choice as you’d have experience in doing so. If not, you’d be going in empty handed and could be very risky.

I think this is the best route to go. You can work a job, build up valuable experience and connections (don’t underestimate connections), and do your Android development on the side. In fact, I think you’ll have plenty of time to do Android development on the side, including weekends.


I like to believe that anything is possible and accomplishable, assuming one sets their mind to it.

Why you just start it now? Many of us are still in college including me. I also have a regular job + I make games on Google Play at home. You can do it if you want, trust me:) Why wait?

If you are lucky enough you won’t even need a regular job after college:)

Trust me , its more way better if you get a decent job after college

+1

Get the job and the experience - the best thing is the experience.

I did put about 8 Months developing app few hours a day ( or it makes 4 Months full time job…)… Even the app may be grate to predict if it will be a hit or not is very hard… the big boys get paid publication in websites and news papers and in the first few hours after the release they have few hundreds of thousands downloads… Some great apps fail to monetize - to aggressive ads or nagging the user to rate and the user rates it with 1 star :smiley: just read few app comments yesterday… I think the developers are to blame for that - skipping the paid apps vs ads…

and hell 45000$ for in App purchase - some users are idiots… buy few lives for 1,99$ … and they spend 70$ for IAP… and to buy a AAA PC game cost you less…
No real gamer will play this games…
Or a D grade game as Flappy Bird makes more money than very good and polish games… the users and their need or choice can not be predicted… or may be > Idiocracy (2006) - IMDb

The current models around mobile games are anti competitive

Competitive mobile gaming and why it’s dead > Gamezone > View News Article

How to survive the mobile gaming apocalypse | Ralph Barbagallo’s Self Indulgent Blog
The mobile gaming is bad - the player doesnt need to have the skills to survive - he can just buy more life or make marrio jump higher for 0.99 $ …

Crazy Nintendo Investor Wants Us To Pay $0.99 For Higher Mario Jumps

Crazy Nintendo Investor Wants Us To Pay $0.99 For Higher Mario Jumps

he is not a crazy man - the rest that a ready to pay are crazy and the rest that doesnt see the problem in IAP…

Tha Apps are almost dead - try with games…