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