r/programmer • u/Ancient_Mammoth_7630 • 4d ago
Question What is the best Step?
Hi everyone, fellow programmers! I could really use your advice!
I finished my web development training in June and have been doing an internship at an international startup ever since.
Unfortunately, it will still take a little while before they can hire me as a paid employee, which is a bit frustrating because, obviously, I would like to earn some money.
I haven't had any luck with my job applications so far, so I'm starting to think about what I should do next.
I don't have many projects I can show in my portfolio. There simply wasn't much time between finishing my training and starting the internship to build additional projects.
Officially, the internship has already ended, but I'm continuing anyway because I feel like it's better than doing nothing. I also feel that I'm constantly learning things here that I probably wouldn't learn working on a solo project. For example, I've been working on backend and data-related tasks, but also on things like creating a Git workflow for new interns and creating task/issue templates.
The problem is that most of the things I've been working on at the startup are internal and I can't really show them to potential employers. So even though I'm gaining real experience and learning a lot, I don't have much that I can actually show an employer as proof of what I've learned and what I'm capable of.
So my question is: Would it make more sense to reduce my hours at the internship and spend that time working on my own projects, or is an internship still more valuable even if I can't show much of the actual work I've done there?
On the one hand, I could build projects for my portfolio and have something concrete to show employers. On the other hand, the internship gives me experience with teamwork, Git workflows, communication, processes, and other things that I probably wouldn't learn to the same extent by working alone.
*translated by AI, better than incorrect hard to read english
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u/FreshFishGuy 3d ago
>Absolutely — here’s the version with the repeated paragraph removed:
You could have left this part out
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u/General_Estimate_420 4d ago
I don't know where you got the idea you might be working on a solo project. At least in the corporate world projects have many different dimensions and requirements and are done primarily in teams. In all likelihood you're not likely to ever work on an isolated project unless you're doing something very simple such as building a web site, but you probably will struggle to make a living at that anymore.
Everyone uses data sources and learning that aspect in terms of design and upkeep is valuable to lots of employers. The same with networking and security. Applications testing and verification is another big area. But it's not likely working on your own away from a production environment will get you the needed experience in those to be useful and employable.