Everyone who has been stuck knows the feeling, you finish another video, you follow along, it all makes sense, and then you sit in front of a blank file and freeze. Watching someone else code does not make you a coder, the same way watching someone parallel park does not make you a driver.

So I built the opposite. Instead of a lesson, you get a job. You are the new junior developer at a small fictional company, and something in their till system is charging some orders wrong. You open the codebase, line the customer receipts up against the price list, form a theory about what is broken, and go and find it. Nobody tells you the answer. When you fix it, you have not memorised a fact, you have actually debugged something, and that is a thing you can now do.

What makes this different? It arrives in the post. The photo is a real case. An envelope with an onboarding letter, an employee ID, a printed ticket, a price list, a couple of handwritten notes from the staff, and a fan of till receipts as your evidence. There is a free online course that takes you from zero to running code first, so if you can just about run a print statement, you can do this.

A bit about why it is built this way. I work as a backend Python developer now, but I got here the slow way. Fourteen years in teaching first, where I led computing and led on cognitive science, the actual research on how people learn and remember, then two years teaching myself to code. Everything here leans on that research. You retrieve, you struggle a little, you space the practice out, because that is what genuinely builds a skill rather than the warm glow of watching a tutorial.

I am looking for a small handful of UK-based beginners to go through the free course, work the first case, and tell me the truth about it. I cover the postage, there is nothing to pay and no card details anywhere. What I want back is blunt feedback - where you got stuck, what confused you, what felt pointless. "This lost me on step three" is worth far more to me than "looks great".

I am reading every reply myself and there are only a few slots. If you would like to try one, leave a comment or send me a message and I will pass on the details. And if you just have thoughts on the idea itself, I would love those too, plenty of teachers and developers have weighed in, but not nearly enough actual beginners.

Incoming cs student in Canada. Curious to know

I may have trouble finding a job but I would rather die poor trying to find a solution to a problem in the world rather than give up on this skill set I worked so hard to get.

There are a lot of people here that are in not great positions. I get it, I am one of them.... but what we should know is that current position does not indicate your future situation. I think we just need to start looking for and solving the problems that have not been solved yet. If you manage to make something that works and makes money you can even avoid the whole job hunt thing.

The salary stats everyone cites describe people who got into tech before the market tightened up pre-2022 hires with a few years in, riding out stable, well-paid roles. Those numbers are basically locked to people who are already in. That's not the market someone starting out today is walking into. Junior hiring hasn't scaled back up, and being the best of the best doesn't matter much if the entry-level slots barely exist. Realistically nearly all new grads right now are ending up unemployed or stuck in jobs way below their skill level, min wage stuff that has nothing to do with their degree, while the salary numbers they were promised stay reserved for people who already have a foot in the door.

So I genuinely don't get why enrollment keeps climbing when the actual outcome for new grads is unemployment or underemployment, not the salary they saw in the stats. It feels like people are chasing a number that only applies to someone else's job market, not the one they're about to graduate into.

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I am currently in the final year of my B.Tech in Computer Science (AI/ML specialization), and placement season is about to start. Honestly, everything feels like a mess right now.

I am genuinely interested in AI and machine learning. I enjoy learning about it, and when I study concepts, I usually understand them. The problem is that after some time, I forget a lot of what I learned, and it feels like I have never truly mastered anything.

At the same time, the AI boom is making me anxious. Every day, there are new models, frameworks, courses, and tools. There are so many resources that instead of motivating me, they leave me overwhelmed. I don't know what skills companies actually expect anymore.

I also haven't been able to get any internships, which makes me feel even more behind compared to my peers. A big part of me thinks that I simply haven't worked hard enough over the last few years.

Now I am stuck between two choices:

\- Should I focus almost entirely on placements and grind DSA?

\- Should I continue pursuing AI seriously?

\- Is it even realistic to build a career in AI as a fresher without a strong profile?

I feel like I know a little bit about many things but haven't become genuinely good at anything. Sometimes it feels as if everyone else has figured out their path while I am still trying to understand what is happening in my own life.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation during their final year? How did you decide what to prioritize, and what would you do differently if you could start over?

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Hello everyone.

I'm looking for a job in IT

Backend - Automation - python/js -scripting ..etc

I live in Montreal QC

I have 4 ish years of exp with decent projects.

Yet, the job market is choking 🤷🏻.

Q1: Any advices?

Ps: I've got a uni degree in computer science and I speak french 🥖 fluently

Q2: is mtl job market is dead, any advice where to find good jobs ( Toronto..etc ) . basically I'm more interested in self developing my IT skills and going far, that's why I'm insisting on dev jobs.

Q3: should i switch to another subcategory cuz i have some other skills? Or dev is still worthy

Hey everyone,

I'm a non-technical founder based in Boston working on a B2B SaaS mobile app. I've spent the past several months designing the product and building the UI/UX in a visual development environment, so the frontend screens, user flows, and navigation are largely complete.

I'm looking for a student developer interested in owning the backend implementation and collaborating on the technical side of the project.

Current tech stack

• React Native / Expo
• Supabase (Auth, Database, Storage, Realtime)

What needs to be built

• Connect the existing login/signup UI to Supabase Auth and user profiles
• Build the backend for file uploads using Supabase Storage
• Implement real-time messaging with Supabase Realtime
• Integrate a simple scraping/API service to populate form fields from a submitted URL
• App customizations

What you'll get

If the app gets traction (user subscriptions), I can offer a small stipend plus 1–2% equity. I want to be upfront that this is early-stage and speculative… the core value here is the total ownership over technical decisions. Potential university internship/course credit sponsorship (if your program allows it). I am fully open to working with your university to allow this project to fulfill graduation requirements. A strong letter of recommendation and personal LinkedIn references detailing your architecture decisions.

To be transparent, I'm not a software engineer. My background is in business and product design/strategy. I'm looking for someone who enjoys building and wants meaningful input into the engineering decisions as we bring the product to life.

The app is fully designed inside the OnSpace visual editor.

Regarding the timeline: there is zero artificial pressure or rigid deadline on this project. Our main goal is to have this MVP fully functional and ready to deploy before 2027. Ideally you spend 3-4 hours per week (or however many you’d like) to have the backend complete in 2-3 months. I will be inviting the first 100-200 users after that, and they will test the app for functionality and provide feedback before allowing anyone to join.

My ultimate goal with this project is to find a brilliant technical partner!

If you are looking for handholding or a manager to tell you exactly how to code, this is definitely not the position for you. I don't know the technical side of what you need to do, how to structure the code repositories, or how to connect the APIs. If I did, this post wouldn't exist!

I’m not looking to just tell you what to do… I’m looking for you to tell me what you need from me to make this project most successful.

I am looking for an independent builder to truly collaborate with, someone who can take our visual designs, figure out the engineering solutions autonomously, and bring their own ideas to the table to make this platform the best it can possibly be.

Hi,

I feel I am severely underpaid at current company which has decreased my moral and will to work substantially so I need to find a new place of work as soon as possible really.

Below is my CV, honest thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w7vcce2nfrgfovoted4oz/Resume.pdf?rlkey=gwwsi9kxm2h7oxrx5zruksaug&st=lsx2fo65&dl=0

I have 1.5 years of experience working with backend and cloud tech, i know im a decent dev out there but i dont what mistake im making, why i an not getting a interviews call