Here's my advice, on a slightly different note to the others: Learn how to make iOS apps, and make a dozen or so of them (obviously, make them smallish apps). C

Here's my advice, on a slightly different note to the others: Learn how to make iOS apps, and make a dozen or so of them (obviously, make them smallish apps). Charge $1 each, and have a free/lite version of each app too. This will teach you nontechnical but very important career skills: how to ship, entrepreneurialism, and initiative! As for your worries about signalling mechanisms, there are 4 SIMPLE answers to that: github, meetups, stackoverflow, and apps in the app store. You sound like a smart guy - get busy!