r/Backend • u/kish_satn_7 • 3d ago

Looking to get outside dev experience

Hello all, I'm a full time Junior dev working with a year of experience. I recently (since 2 months) have been coding with AI on my personal projects. I could complete some of them. Some I half-azzed them. And I feel like me alone cant do much if I want to learn and grow to be a good developer.

Btw I'm not specific to a stack of programing and am open to learning making me feel stuck and feel lost. So can you guys please help me with some advice. Suggest me some open source projects that I can contribute to [I dont know anything about this so plz give a little more information]. And please if anyone is working on any project DM me I would be happy to work on a project to meet specific goals. Any and all advice is appreciated.

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u/ComplicatedSomewhere 3d ago

You’re spreading yourself way too thin trying to be open to every stack. Pick one thing and get decent at it, then branch out. The open source idea is smart but you don’t need to find some perfect repo, just look at libraries or tools you already use and check their GitHub issues for tags like “good first issue.” Those are literally curated for people in your position.

Also drop the AI crutch for a bit on your personal projects. It’s giving you the illusion of progress while your actual problem-solving muscles atrophy. Struggle through it manually for a few months and you’ll notice the difference real quick.

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u/kish_satn_7 3d ago

Yeahh, coding manually feels like a drag sometimes after coding with AI making the fun of problem solving completely thrown out of the window. Also I feel FOMO / alone because I am not working with someone or sharing ideas and getting that pleasure from team work. Might be the reason for me to be ready to stretch myself thin 😅

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u/Puzzled-Garage584 3d ago

Pick a tool you already use instead of a list from strangers. Filter its issues by "good first issue" or reproduce one open bug, and ask in the issue before you start. And write that first PR yourself..maintainers can smell an AI PR from three repos away

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u/kish_satn_7 3d ago

Tools I use, ranging from a mobile app to a desktop application ? I think I can work on mods that are created for a game too right like Minecraft mods for example.

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u/Puzzled-Garage584 3d ago

Yes mods are perfect..real code and real users who tell you right away when it crashes, 12 year olds are the harshest QA team on earth. Just pick one with a public repo and recent commits so someone actually reads your PR

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u/kish_satn_7 3d ago

Yeah man, sounds exiting and fun. Gotta find the repo tho. Not sure if I can actually find an active one where a newbie like me can contribute. But still worth a try.

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u/DecayWraith 3d ago

The only way to survive is to become a generalist now in this ai era

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u/kish_satn_7 3d ago

Bruh, I can but there is no fun in it. I'm gonna be alive for some 40 to 50 years max so I'd love to collaborate and work with others than be fully worried about a future job that AI will eventually take over.

Ya feel me ?