Is it possible to get a web development job if I have a 6 year gap? 
Tags: discuss
Published: 2017-12-22 04:48:21

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title: Is it possible to get a web development job if I have a 6 year gap? 
published: true
description: 
tags: discuss
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Six years a go I completed my computer science degree. I started with no prior programming knowledge and ended with a love for programming. 

However instead of getting a job, I decided to work on myself!

I have cerebral palsy. Whilst six years a go it wasn't stopping me from going to University and getting a good degree, it was getting in the way. It effected my walking, talking, eating and drinking. I didn't go to my graduation ceremony because I imagined there'd be a stage where they might hand the diplomas and the image of after 3 years having to be helped to get up onto the stage was demoralising to say the least.

So after the ceremony date came and gone I decided that I did not want to feel like that anymore and that I was going to take care of the problem. I decided to work on my physical no matter how long it took.

Six years later. I went from just being able to walk from one campus to the other to being able to run 10 kilometres with no problem. Eating, drinking and even cooking are now easy.

Over these years I have worked on PHP, wordpress, a bit of laravel, then found Node.js, non-sql DBs, javascript, react. Now I'm all about the node/js eco system. 

I'm still a beginner, because my physical was the main focus, and as it had it's ups and downs, my motivation for programming also had it's ups and downs

### I'm "scared" 

I'm almost 30 years old with no work experience of any kind. I feel as though if I start applying for work, they'll just say "6 years of doing nothing? Next!" (Also my speech is not very good, so the checkbox for "excellent communication skills" scares me to death).

Is there a possibility that I could get a job? 

###  Portfolio or blogging

Whilst I haven't yet applied or spoken to anyone in person, I have read a lot about this topic. I know that a portfolio is important. **Some say you need complete projects some say simple demos would do**. 

Very few say blogging (without a portfolio) would help.

I do not have any complete projects, though I have quite a few demos. At some point I was "addicted" to ecommerce design so I have few ecommerce layouts build on react, vuejs, express ...

But I have no proper apps

Blogging on the other hand is something that sounds easier! For example would a tutorial blog (secretly aimed at showing off to employers) be a better way to go? I've been running a jekyll blog on my local server and been writing as if it was live. And so every time I read what a javascript developer should know, I research it, play with it, then write a tutorial for it. It's quicker and more to the point than projects. **Would going to interviews with a blog and the demos produced to support the blog** be better or just as good as anything else?

Sorry if I'm not keeping to the rules of dev.to with this question, but I hope you could give me some tips. 

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<small>Paying it forward:
When I decided to do what I did, I was clear in what I wanted. I wanted some time to get my health were it needed to be, **then** I'd start contributing to the society in which ever way I can to re-pay for the state-support I got over the years. (this is neither here nor there and has nothing to do with the topic, I would have felt bad not to mention that this "plan" whilst the length of which was unknown, wasn't taken from the standpoint of "I already get state benefits, I don't need to bother")</small>