One of the things that I've heard more and more over the last two years is that developers who have actually "done" something are worth hiring. With so many people worried about their jobs in this economy, having more skill, talent, and accomplishments should help you to feel more secure. Even if you don't feel secure, I would expect that the more skilled you are, the more likely you are to get a job.
These days it's easier than ever to build an application. Hardware is cheap and powerful, often costing $500 or less for a laptop that runs most tools. Hosting services are cheap, or even free. There are so many ways for someone to showcase their development talents that it does truly seem to be wise to pick and choose those developers who have shown some talent in the real world over those that are content to sit in a cube and allow someone else to manage their efforts.
One way to showcase your skills, and perhaps add another talent it to build a mobile application. It's easy to become an Android, iOS, or WP7 developer, on average costing less than $100 to build an application of some sort and deploy it in a marketplace. I ran across this story of a moderately successful app, which was built by its author because he wanted both the experience and the tool.
It hasn't been that profitable, at least not in terms of the revenue measured against the time invested, but I think there's a huge amount of "profit" that the author realizes can't be measured in the numbers. The author learned a bit about business, developed a skill in iOS programming, and gets some small financial rewards from his side project. Those benefits might provide even more revenue in his consulting business at a later time, but even if they don't result in direct revenue, I think the effort involved were well worth it.
The ability to "scratch an itch" of a developer can't be underestimated. So many people have found tremendous fulfillment in their technology careers when they can actually create something of which they are proud.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
- Watch the Windows Media Podcast - 21.4MB WMV
- Watch the iPod Video Podcast - 15.8MB MP4
- Watch the MP3 Audio Podcast - 3.7MB MP3
The podcast feeds are available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com. Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there. Overall RSS Feed: 
or now on iTunes! 
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
You can also follow Steve Jones on Twitter:
