How should I continue? Graduating soon..

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Hello everyone.

I am about to graduate from university and currently reside in Germany. My passion is full-stack web development using JavaScript. My goal is to secure a job in web development before August so I can start working in Switzerland.
I have also completed an apprenticeship as a software developer in 2019, which focused on 2nd and 3rd level support and developing features in an agile team.
Through my university studies since 2020, I have gained valuable experience in software engineering and web development. I have also built three to five small projects during my university courses.

One of my projects is a webshop with a node.js/postgresql backend and a simplified vue.js frontend. However, the frontend does not cover all the functionality of the backend. I used docker-compose to split the deployment into different services.
This project demonstrates my experience with important concepts and my ability to develop and deploy projects. However, my previous projects have not had a significant impact as employers often prioritize 'real job experience' over hobby projects, such as a small webshop with limited functionality. :D

I'm currently developing a shop for my older brother based on svelte and pocketbase. It's currently able to go fully live with processing payments over stripe but he wants to keep it in a showcase mode, just to present the products. I have deployed it on a linux server by docker-compose; caddy webserver, pocketbase server and svelte.

In 2016, I began my career as a programmer with Java and Progress (4GL). During my university studies, which began about five years ago, I became interested in web development. While I am no longer a junior-level programmer, I recognize that senior-level positions typically require at least five years of experience in any programming language or framework. I'm on a level in which I can realise any idea by using the internet. I learn really fast, especially if it's regarding to web development.

I am interested in learning Go and focusing on backend development, although this will primarily benefit my personal projects. I assume many people here use Go in their daily jobs and have experience with the job market. In Switzerland, the demand for Go developers is not very high, and job vacancies typically seek senior developers.

Do you have any recommendations for me? I don't believe that building or improving my existing projects will be enough to convince employers to hire me. Do you have any tips on which concepts I should focus on? Is it worthwhile to gain experience with hobby Go projects if I cannot secure a job as a Go backend developer or in a similar role?

I would appreciate advices and feedback :) Thank you..

1 Answers

I don't believe that building or improving my existing projects will be enough to convince employers to hire me. Do you have any tips on which concepts I should focus on?.

Begin to dig where you are. Which industies or business are there? What do they need? Visit some of them and ask them what they need (similar to your brother).

Then ask if you can build something (a dummy for free) for them that fits their needs and show what you can do for them. You will maybe not be employed at once, but you build experience and create connections and a real world portfolio.

The keyword is "listen"...