from Hacker News

Looking for a chance to move from the corporate world to the startup world

by agurha on 3/12/12, 8:00 PM with 7 comments

Hello All,

Apologies if this is slightly off topic but I’ve been a lurker on this list for a while and thought I’d put myself out there for a change..

I’m a developer working for a large investment bank looking for a chance to get into the startup world. I have about 7-8 years of software development experience with very strong object-oriented/relational database skills but I’d like to break away from the corporate Microsoft stack (C#, WPF, WCF, SQL Server) and get into mobile development, specifically iOS development.

I’m quite familiar with the syntax and idioms of Objective-C, having co-developed a simple anagram game for iPhone called ‘WordSketch’ during my spare time in the evenings and weekends last year. We managed to get it into the app store, got a few hundred downloads but nothing spectacular ;) I also gained exposure to the basics of UIKit, interface builder and CoreData whilst building the app. (We decided to use cocos2d for the game engine, so I have pretty good exposure to this library too).

I wouldn’t regard myself an experienced Objective-C developer but I hope the above shows that I have the drive to learn and pickup new languages, frameworks and concepts very easily if given the opportunity.

Basically, I’m looking for someone to take a chance on me. I’d be happy to work unpaid for a few months whilst I become more proficient. I’m still a beginner so I doubt I would be able to deliver straight away on a new project but I’m sure given a few months of on the job learning I can get up to speed.

I just think after years of working for a large company, I have gotten to the stage where I feel I would be happier working for a smaller start-up. I’d like to work somewhere where I don’t feel like just another cog in the wheel, somewhere where I feel like I am actually contributing to the companies products and where I can wake up in the morning and actually feel excited about going to work!

Thanks for reading, Ankur

PS

The app is currently out of the app store as I chose not to renew my license for the time being, but here is a short review: http://thesmartph...

If you are interested in getting in touch, email me off the list, also - i’m happy to go for coffee.

  • by dmmalam on 3/13/12, 2:23 AM

    After knowing Ankur or a year or two, I believe he is underselling himself. He is an talented dev who can pick up new environments very quickly: non trivial iOS game in a month; functional programming with F# in a few weeks etc He is also a genuinely nice guy and has business acumen.

    If your in London, and want someone to hack projects with, then you could do a lot worse!

  • by helio777 on 3/14/12, 2:33 PM

    Hey Ankur, maybe we could be a good fit, can´t access your email though. We are a pretty early stage start up, creating a mobile plattform. We are based in Berlin, but it could anyways be nice to chat. so drop me a line at zehnfischer at gmail dot com happy to hear from you. Torsten
  • by mrkmcknz on 3/15/12, 12:44 AM

    Ankur,

    You will have to add your email to your profile as it's not visible by default.

    A lot of people will want to get in touch from what I have read.

    Good luck!

  • by padwiki on 3/12/12, 8:12 PM

    Ankur,

    Interested, but contact info not visible by default.

    Email at 1stdraft at google's mail service dot com.

    -B

  • by agurha on 3/12/12, 8:47 PM

    Im located in central-ish london, uk
  • by xiaomei on 3/12/12, 8:11 PM

    Where are you located?