I'm lost. Advice for a 2 year average programmer?
Tags: webdev, beginners, javascript, help
Published: 2024-05-31 11:04:43

Man, don't get me wrong, I know I am the problem, but it's been a really tough ride.

I am writing this both as a rant and as a request for an advice, or even help, because I'm clearly completely lost, and my decision making has proven to be poor haha. 

-Got an Associate's Degree (2021-2023) in Software Development that taught me JavaScript, React, Yii2, MySQL, React Native, and had a 4.25/5 GPA
-During that time I got an internship of 2 months, and it started amazing, but didn't end very well
-I also developed a web portfolio I am very proud of, despite of the crappy code, and nowdays its too hard to update it(for the same reason), so I never did, but I still liked the result so much, so I left it online still: [https://eduardobotelho.com](https://eduardobotelho.com)

![My web portfolio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/31phn0fjryixr0bfttf4.PNG)

-I liked the result of that so much, that I deluded myself to think I had a bright future or something. I was ready to get disappointed though, just not this hard.
-I was faced with the decision of trying to get a job, or keep studying and trying to get the next degree. I couldn't get a job because the entry level was too high and my skills were not enough. I couldn't get an internship because my city is small and the few companies here were specially uninterested that year for some reason(none of my classmates got an internship). I decided to  try signing up for my next degree in the same university.
-Because of a teacher that graded me wrong in my last year, it took too long for me to be accepted in the university(2 months late), and even though everything got solved, I lost a big scholarship that I was getting from my city's local government. So I decided to not study that year after all.
-Instead, I decided I would take a 6 month online web development bootcamp at Ironhack because they had a career service in which they would give tips on how to get a job after, and I thought it would be useful(not that much tbh), plus I could resharp my skills and get something more for my CV(poor decision after all).
-And I just finished that bootcamp this month.
-During that time I also learned ExpressJS, a little bit of Docker, and got really decent/good at NextJS and TypeScript, and worked on some other side projects:
[https://diary.acehq.net](https://diary.acehq.net) - an app of taking notes with auth, text editor, search filters, light/dark theme, all self hosted in Kamaterra ([check video demo](https://youtu.be/-A4sF0ILhz0))


![MyNotes, a note-taking app I developed](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/m9ztvvfheznqkpe52jrn.PNG)

https://status.acehq.net - an app that pings my other apps (i manage it with strapi) to see if they're online


![A link aggregator app I developed](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7g41uge3w9o34ox4m0kf.PNG)

https://jmap.acehq.net/ - an app that I made because I played minecraft, and it basically uses a golang API I created to merge different pieces of a picture into a single big one([see video demo please](https://youtu.be/SL7ngwiO2Qw))

![An app that basically merges small pictures into a bigger one](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/s9z7hpwipzli44gk81xg.PNG)

-I also worked on many other side projects. Some of them are just unimpressive so I didn't mention, and others just failed due to me testing out new stuff, breaking the app, and then being too unmotivated to fix it, or simply because I was not liking it anymore. Check my Linked In for more(you can also see my github there): [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardobotelho1029/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardobotelho1029/)
-I tried applying for jobs and internships again, no response whatsoever. The entry levels are still fairly high, and I know I don't have anything impressive to show. 

What should I do? What is lacking on me to get a first internship/job opportunity?

Again, I know there is tons I can improve, but I want a direction, because it's really hard to stay motivated without any guarantee of anything. So far whenever I worked really hard, it never paid off that much.

Do I need to learn 10 extra technologies to enter an entrylevel job/internship?
Do I need to add something more to my projects? Maybe testing, better code??
Do I need to improve my CV? ([check it here](https://shorturl.at/fWIY4))
Do I just keep applying?
Do I need certificates?
Do I need to do more projects? 
I'm already working on the next one...

I appreciate any feedback, positive or negative.