Good morning,
I’m currently a freshman at community college with a major of Computer Science, and wanted to know what the best course of action was to get an entry-level position by mid-sophmore year. I’m thinking about completing all of the JS related content on FCC as well as complete the extra coding projects on the Coding Interview tab, but what else should I do?
Your best bet is to work with your school’s career services. They probably host recruiting events or can put you in contact with recruiters who are specifically looking to hire students.
I have 2 main questions.
There a few big blockers.
Time going to school full time and working part-time (the most common) can get pretty difficult due to time availability. Its very easy for work to impact your schooling negatively. The more extreme option like working full time and going to school full time is a recipe for disaster where you either tank your schooling, or both! Also forget about your social life. Working full-time and going to school part time is usually the mandatory option for many, which is workable, but will take longer. If you can pick, I’d suggest to stick to school as much as possible, as your paying for it, and working on the side to gain extra experience.
experience going to school, and learning “side-stuff” will help you stand out from the average person. However, you will still lack experience in the workforce, thus limiting your options, and thus making it harder to actually “get a bite”. Its already hard enough to get a job straight out of college with minimal “standout” experience. However there are a number of ways to help “build” toward solving these problems.
I’d focus on getting a full degree with computer science, while looking for opportunities through your campus to help you stand out. This could be internships, to get real-world experience, to other things such as research opportunities, or even an “IT job” on campus so you have some semi-relevant work experience while you do your studies.
Your welcome to also continue with FCC to learn extra skills you can add to your resume, as these will also help you stand out. Plus it will have a secondary effect on your studies and help you learn, and thus get better grades.
Ultimately, aiming for a job while going through your schooling is difficult due to time and your lack of experience. I’d consider “getting work” during this time more as a way to build your resume+standout, rather than the end-game goal during this time. Your primary goal should be “resume building”, this includes skills, school and extracurriculars. With a solid resume, and a degree, and a strong network to leverage when your job ready will make the road vastly easier than trying to cut corners.
Good luck, keep learning, keep growning!
Thank you for the response! I’ll definitely look at what my school offers.
Thank you, I was looking at getting a paid internship (to get some extra money as well as strengthen my resume). Thank you!
Hello friend.
I would like ta ask, why you need to get a job by such short amount of time?
I know that money is one reason, but my advice will be to first focus on your school and finish it. Juggling between job and school is often bad and can end up in giving u on studies and that is something you dont want.
As Van Wilder said once:Dont be fool…stay in school! 
Getting a professional internship or student job is a very common part of getting a CS degree. Some schools even require it. Something that starts the summer between Sophomore and Junior year is a pretty good goal.
I would like to be a senior developer after graduating (which needs 2 years of experience).
Typically you would need more than two years of work experience to be considered a senior developer.
IMO, after 2 years of work experience you would be moving out of entry and into mid level.
But like everything in this industry, it varies from person to person on how long it took them to become seniors.
You could ask the two seniors on this thread how long it took them to get there 
4 years of school (which overlapped with 3 years working as a developer student worker/intern at 3 different employers), followed by 3 years as a junior developer at one company, 3 years as a mid-level developer at another company, then I got a job at my current company as a senior developer.
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