Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right community to ask this, but I got yelled at by my mom today for not having a job and I thought it might be worthwhile asking what sort of strategy I should pursue from a community of people with skills I would like to develop. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a mid-tier state university in the US before the pandemic, but didn't really do anything to develop my portfolio. I had good grades and got two interviews for software engineer positions, but didn't get the job in either case. I didn't really care too much. I was still an enby egg and everything felt off, so I never looked very hard. When the pandemic happened, it made finding a position out of the question because my parents are high risk. Unfortunately, I have had trouble developing a portfolio. I don't know if my education is lacking or I missed something or it is my ADHD or I am just not talented and got fooled into thinking I was okay by grade inflation, but I could never focus for long enough to figure out anyone's project and make a contribution. I did a bit of Cracking the Coding Interview, but got bored a chapter or two in and haven't gone back to it in a while. So I guess specifically my questions are:
- Am I correct in trusting the common advice to contribute to open source projects to build a portfolio?
- If so, how do you figure out how to gauge your skill level so that you pick the right projects to contribute to? 2a. How long does it take you to get up to speed on a new project before you feel comfortable contributing? How long did it take before your first job?
- Am I correct in thinking that any credit I get from employers from having a CS degree is strongly outweighed by 5 years of not having a job and no contributions?
- Should I consider looking into the resources I (and my mom) have heard about offering autistic people help getting into technical fields? I don't think my autism is that bad, and I'm not particularly talented either, so I'd dismissed these for the most part.
- How do I avoid positions that don't either build my skills or lead to a career?
- I am prescribed and taking medicine for ADHD. Is there anything I can do beyond that? My mom has talked about hiring a “life coach,” but it has always sounded like a good way to spend money for no benefit.
- How do I motivate myself when I'm probably mediocre and will be treated like shit if I “succeed?”
- Am I thinking about this all wrong somehow?
- What are the best resources for someone in my position? Despite how it may sound, I am willing to put a fair bit of effort into self-improvement, it has just been spread far too thin because of the ADHD.
Accessibility text :Pictured is a slide from a presentation at a hacker conference with a bullet point reading “We can smash the stack” highlighted and the presenter wearing cat ears and holding a plushie fox. Added to the screenshot of the presentation is the aforementiomed highlighting as well as the warning “KEEP YOUR MEMCPY SIZES VALIDATED OR CATGIRLS WILL SMASH THE STACK, NYA” written in a pink all-caps impact-style font clone.
I completely agree with you about motivation in isolation. I've been doing a bit more this past week, but I need to keep pushing myself to stay focused on the same project after a day or so. It was easier in college because I had more external motivation. I did have the idea recently that I could learn a bit of graphics and get a bit more motivation out of what I code. I'll probably stick with that for a couple of months because it is a fairly versatile skill to know how to tell the GPU to do things. Additionally, thank you for letting me know about the Out in Tech group. It sounds like it would be helpful.