What to do next?

Hi,

Let me introduce myself really quickly and give you a bit of my background. My name is Eduardo, I’m from Brazil and I’m 18 years old. I started programming when I was 16. I finished high school and got into university but decided to go study abroad and now I’m doing a software developer bachelor in the Netherlands. My real question here is more like a discussion or a guidance request. I have (at least I think I do) intermediate level programming skills, I can do pretty much any task that is asked and I’m really comfortable with programming, I finished FCC’s old front-end curriculum and worked on back-end development on my own. Up until now I haven’t had a job as a programmer, and I don’t know what to do. Since I’m in my first year of university and I already had previous knowledge, the course is really dull atm, but I’ve got enough motivation to stick through. The thing is, I’d like to be working in side projects or anything really just to keep myself occupied, I’ve done a few things here and there but nothing really meaningful. My latest “project” was a simple python script that helped me out in a game I was playing (no cheat, the game is a CCG and the script gives me my card collection from the game), but that was a quick and easy fun thing. The problem I’m facing now is what to do next? What kind of project can I work on? Should I try to do some freelancing? Should I try to make a proper curriculum and look for a part-time job while I study? Or should I just keep to my side projects and focus in the university?

I hope someone can make sense of this and can understand what I’m going through, if not at least I tried.
¯_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for your time :slight_smile:

Hey Eduardo,

I would recommend you to send out your Resume, github, protfolio… The usuals… to local companies and trying to arrange some internship/partime job…

Don’t focus on the salary, thats what I did recently. I took an unpaid internship position over a paid one because I can be a part of an academy and I have my own mentor… and thats worth way more. So definitely thats a thing to look for… Thats crucial for you…

The thing about professional development is that companies often use internal tools and tools that help them to cooperate more easily… Its just diferent from doing your own codings because you’re the only one contributing in them so you know whats happening…

That extra insight and experience might be crucial when you re picking a job because lets say 6months + of commercial (professional) development is a big benefit in your CV…

Enjoy the luxary of being in college and use the time to teach yourself practical skills even in a form of unpaid or badpaid internship because being a graduate with no relevant experience in real development might be a little bit disadvantage (always depends on the jobmarket of the location you re in).

Six months of practical experience in comparisson with none makes huge diference during the interview process. Moreover, if you learn the company flow they will usually make you an offer cuz they spent time with you.

One more thing to add, these internship might provide you useful information about frameworks and lenguages you are planning to learn or get good at… and you can try them in real projects so potentially you can ditch them if you re not enjoying certain framework and stuff…

Pro development is a big step from doing side projects etc… so the sooner you get your ticket to that world, the better :slight_smile:

Keep us updated about your career path!!!

Trebla

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Create a website about something you like: band, movie, food, whatever.
Create web calculator.
Create to do app.
Create small web app that pulls weather forecast from API of one of the big weather companies.
Make it quick and working, can be buggy and ugly.
Don’t be perfectionist.

Put all together on one website as yours portfolio. Start applying for jobs. In the meantime keep on learning.