Hi everyone,
I’m taking a gap year before college focused on back-end development (Node, Express, JavaScript). I’ve recently completed Codecademy’s back-end career path (I can share repo links if helpful) and I’m treating this year like a school year:
- I’ll be working on small mini-projects weekly to get comfortable with my skills.
- A midterm project around November
- A Capstone project focusing on back-end logic in May
- Job/internship prep by June-July
My main goal is to make sure I’m keeping the right standard for the gap year, so that I’m ready for the junior back-end role.
I understand that there isn’t one ‘perfect answer’ as the market is always changing, so I would love short practical input from anyone in the industry whether a junior, senior, or employer. Please answer with your role + region:
- Specific benchmark to judge job-readiness?
- Projects that stand out: Project types that got you hired or impressed an employer? (If you can share the link or repo, I would love to check it out too.)
- Internship importance: Essential, nice to have or required?
- Quality-control mechanisms to practice weekly?
Any help, whether quick replies or long-form experience full content, would be extremely appreciated. I’m collecting replies so I can build an industry standard curriculum for my gap year.