My company recently hired a young student right out of high school. What made him stand out was a few apps he had published on the App Store. I believe he had

My company recently hired a young student right out of high school. What made him stand out was a few apps he had published on the App Store. I believe he had a couple of games and two or three utilities. All of them were free, but they all had quite a few reviews and 4 to 5 star ratings. I believe you can achieve similar results by showing the work you've done on OSS projects. Just share your commits with potential employers.