I will graduate a bachelor of software engineering this year and I am freaking out over the fact that I am incapable of getting a job. I do not have the skills. I want to become a fullstack developer but there are so many different roadmaps and recommendations that I have found online that have confused me so much I don’t even know where to start with. Can someone give me a sort of strategy I can follow? Or a plan or idk something like that. Maybe tell me what you personally did to get a job. Most people I have asked just tell me to start somewhere it doesn’t matter where but nobody reveils their actual secrets. I used to like this career now it has become very stressful thinking about it. And I want to change that. I know I can do great things in this field, its just that I am super overwhelmed and stuck now.
- How did you conclude that you don’t have skills and incapable of getting a job ?
- You’ve learnt engineering ( presumably for 4 years ), which tech did you like most ?
- Did you enjoy studying in those 4 years ? have you built any projects on your own or with team ?
- Just like medicine stream, software has got tons of options and you need to choose one and stick to it
- Which country are you from ?
As usual I recommend to read this amazing book to everyone in IT and non-IT field as well, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. You can check book summary on YT as well and later buy a copy for yourself to keep life long
Thanks for reaching our sir! 
To answer your questions:
- My school has only taught me the basics, just a little bit of everything. However, when I look at job postings and based on what my employed friends have told me, what we have covered in school is not enough. Also, the majority of the programming courses we have taken were done in Java (I am not a fan of it especially for DSA). We have also done web programming but only PHP and very little JavaScript. I don’t even remember anything from this course. The professor was chill he made everything too easy.
- My bachelor only lasts 3 years and I am in my final semester. I don’t really have a favorite tech, but from what I have seen MERN stack is a good starting point. I also want to get into some python for AI but I’ll work on that later. I have the basics down from my AI and Data Mining university courses but I want to dive deeper. However, I like to learn website development first.
- I did enjoy the overall experience of Uni. Studying was interesting for the most part too. I have a 3.72 gpa. We have done some school projects but used GPT for the majority of them. I cant say that I have learnt something from them. Maybe how to write professional documentations but nothing programming related.
- I know that I want to focus on fullstack web development, but I don’t know where to start. Some people recommend Full Stack Open, Odin Project, FreeCodeCamp or Code Academy and Scrimba courses. I don’t know which one to choose
- I am from Albania.
Also that book seems like something I need so I will definitely read it.
Does your school have industry contacts, job placement service or internship programs?
Not really. Even if it did I still think I need to learn some things before I start applying for jobs.
Internships are specifically for people right out of (or still in) school. You have more to learn but you will never know everything. Someone is looking to hire someone right out of school to train. Good luck with it.
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If I get chance to re-start my career again will work in AI/ML or Humanoid robotics field rather than established fields which has got loads of competition
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Do follow and read how to build career in AI/ML here https://x.com/armankhon/status/1894791748486037979 , AI/ML Roadmap for beginners in 2025 - Arman Khondker
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As you’re in EU, do learn German and goto Switzerland or any other western EU countries ( Poland is great option as well ) where lots of startups are looking for interns / jr engineers as well ( these countries has got good salaries as well; compared to east european countries )
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Do checkout videos on YT about various career paths, make note and stick to one of them
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Join / create a team who are still unemployed and make a career plan together
All the very best & do let me know if you’ve further queries
Once you decide on career path ( after watching real world people’s experiences on YT ), choose any of the options you like
But always remember learning is just 10% job done, real 90% work is building projects and lots of them ( of various complexities )
e.g. Learning Python is just 10% task completed, but building projects with what you’ve learnt which can be used in real world scenario is what matters the most ( 90% of difficult but not impossible ) to get your first job
You don’t need to meet every bullet in a job posting to apply. Aim for meeting at least most though.
@Angel19 do check this article from Linkedin François Rosselet on LinkedIn: Top 21 AI startups in Switzerland
- google “humanoid startups in switzerland”
Hi @Angel19 !
Congrats! 
Graduating from college is a huge accomplishment and you should be proud of that 
I wouldn’t say you are incapable. Your situation is similar to thousands of others who learned how to code and aren’t sure about the next steps for getting a job. So I would consider you normal in this situation.
Well since you asked on the freeCodeCamp forum we will point you to Full Stack Curriculum
But regardless of which platform you use, don’t fall into analysis of paralysis.
There is nothing wrong with asking for suggestions. I did the same thing when I learned how to code. But at some point you need to just dive in and start.
The reason why there are so many different roadmaps and learning platforms is because there is not just one way to code.
What works for one person might be completely wrong for another.
Here is what I did when deciding on a resource.
I would jump into a resource and try it out for an hour and ask myself the following questions:
- Does the site or platform have a smooth user experience? Or is it buggy and hard to navigate through?
- Is the teacher or the lesson well explained and I am actually learning? Or is it a struggle to understand what is going on and the lessons are poorly done?
- Is there a supportive community available where I can ask questions and get help? Or is there no help available or a toxic community associated with this platform?
After an hour, you will know the answers to those questions and whether or not if you want to continue with a platform or not.
A few years ago, I wrote an article about how I learned how to code and got my first developer job.
I would also suggest reading through these other articles on how others got their first jobs too
But here are the key points to remember from all of those stories include mine:
- consistency is key. Don’t jump around to 20 different resources. Stick with a main one and follow it through even when things get hard.
- ask questions when you get stuck.
- build projects on your own and embrace failure. The people who make it through and get developer jobs, work through 100s of mistakes and failures because that is where the learning is. You will learn 10x more working through 100s of error messages and mistakes by building projects than running to GPT and “getting an answer” without learning anything.
- work on building connections and relationships in this industry. Go to local meetups, join slack and discord groups, share your knowledge with others and participate in events and conversations centered around tech. That is where you are going to learn about opportunities available to you.
that’s most schools though. And even bootcamps and online. Your goal right now is to build up a solid starting foundation. Then you can learn more and become a stronger developer once you are on the job.
But you should know programming basics after 3 years. If not build a small project and you will quickly fill in the gaps that you missed in school. But regardless of the language (C, C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, etc) the programming basics are the same. So you won’t be starting from 0 by learning JavaScript. You will already have a baseline foundation.
That is the unfortunately reality for many newer developers. The overliance and missue of AI tools will bring terrible results and many programmers won’t actually know how to program.
Now, I am not anti AI, but I am against people using these tools to outsource their learning and problem solving skills.
The only way to learn is by building projects, failing 100s of times, reading the docs, reading error messages, asking questions and after all of that struggling getting to a working app. When you do all of that, then you will actually know how your apps work and learn a ton in the process. If you don’t do that and outsource it all to GPT or other AI tools, then you will never have the skills to do the job.
Hope that helps
This should have been highlighted and in BOLD IMHO, now a days college grads are using ChatGPT for everything and meanwhile losing their brain muscles’ capabilities sigh
It’s all a matter of perspective. I would absolutely love to be in your position. I’m in my 40’s trying to learn coding and switch careers while working a full time job. You’re going to have a bachelors in software engineering. You are light years ahead on me, and most of the people here.
My more practical advice is, go to every job fair you can find, and go to every tech meetup you can find. Human networking is very helpful in career advancing.
Thank you. Unfortunately internship in Albania means to hire someone to do your job without paying them.
I don’t love that, but it might be worth doing for a few months to get real job training and experience?
You seem convinced that you do not have the skills to do the job, yet if someone hires you to do the job, even for free, it does prove to both you and the employer that you can do the job, right?