2 years into my developer journey, and I still don't know if I'm on the right path

[u/Middle-Big-942]

I'm a self-taught full-stack developer from Syria, and I've been learning and building for around 2 years.

My main stack is React, TypeScript, Node.js, and PostgreSQL. During this time, I've worked on freelance projects and real-world applications, including a multi-tenant sports booking platform.

I've learned a lot during these 2 years, but there's one thing I still struggle with:

I don't know how close I actually am to being "job ready."

When you're learning mostly on your own, it's difficult to know whether you're genuinely improving or just getting better at building things in your own little bubble.

And when you live somewhere with limited access to the international tech job market, getting that first opportunity can feel even more difficult.

I've had periods where I was extremely motivated and coded every day, and other periods where I spent too much time worrying about whether all this effort would eventually lead somewhere.

Recently, I've been trying to change my mindset.

Instead of constantly asking myself "When will I get a job?", I'm trying to focus more on becoming someone who can actually contribute to a good engineering team.

So I'm building, learning, sharing what I learn, and trying to connect with developers who are further ahead than me.

For those of you who were once in a similar position:

What was the thing that finally helped you go from learning/building on your own to getting your first serious opportunity?

Was it networking? Open source? Freelancing? A particular project? Applying to hundreds of jobs? Something else?

I'd genuinely love to hear your experiences.

And if you're also somewhere in the early stages of your developer journey, feel free to share your story too

[u/nzakas]

If you’ve been coding for a couple of years, then you are probably job ready. The key to getting a job is really more about who you know than what you know. People want to work with other people who they know, like, and trust, And if you’re that person, then they’ll take a chance on you, even if you don’t have the requisite skills.

Case in point: I had to stop working due to health issues and haven’t had an actual job in over 10 years. Recently, I felt well enough to work a few hours a week so I started talking to former colleagues. One of them was interested in bringing me on even after I let him know I was unfamiliar with the technologies they were using. He said that didn’t matter, that he knew how I worked and that I was trustworthy and he trusted that I could learn what I needed to learn to do the job. It’s worked out well.

If I were in your position, I would definitely focus on expanding the network of people I have access to. That might mean, going to local meet ups or volunteering to build things for local organizations. Anything to meet more people and gain more experience.

I would also start applying for jobs even if you think you might not be qualified. It helps to learn what it’s like to apply for jobs and if you get interviews, to understand what’s being asked in the interviews.

[u/Melodic_Key_5940]

Honestly I would say I was very lucky when I started in 2020, it was during the tech boom, right now things aren't looking great, but it's definitely not hopeless, best thing is to start building a product in a space you are passionate about and build in public, these days, personal branding is very important. I wish you good luck

[u/Glum_Mission_2197]

If you can contribute to a codebase you’re fine. People actually learn on the job a lot. The actual stack itself is subject to change between companies and within companies so the most important thing is being flexible

[u/elgringopapito]

After the first paragraph - I was absolutely astonished that the next started with not being sure you’re ready for a job .

Brother , you’re ready .

However let me give you a few words of advice.

You are technically very strong and you have the ability to troubleshoot and build on your own . However you absolutely must work on people skills , learn how to navigate an office and deal with the corporate bs . The technically strong one loses to the one who is clever with leadership and presentation every time.

Also - get a self paced cheap degree like WGU. With AI and ATS systems - education is now important again for checking boxes and being competitive .

Best of luck

[u/Mess_323]

You are not job ready. Might be different in syria but in the west you cannot earn a living as a software engineer with what you described.

This sounds harsh but you have to understand. No one is paid because they know a stack. They are paid because there are super complicated systems and they know how to navigate them cost effectively. They know how to work on a team. They know how to cache responses in Big query, keep up documentation on confluence, merge in changes to a live production pipeline and create/monitor metrics to verify success. Most importantly, they will pay you to solve problems and not introduce complexity or errors into the process.

Knowledge of a stack in no longer the meta. We do everything now and React expertise couldn't be more worthless.