If you're comfortable taking advice from a complete rando, find a job doing something, anything in generative AI. It's hot, will remain hot until the bubble pops, and you should be able to get a foothold in the org if you can demonstrate competency with some code and hitting LLM endpoints. Use that foothold to ensure you can keep the job when the bubble pops, and you can pivot to other engineering work in the org. Failing all of that, you'll at least have some experience and some network you otherwise wouldn't have. Good luck.

As unexpected as it may sound, I think you should focus on getting a job.

When you get some actual experience of solving business tasks, dealing with colleagues and superiors, spending 8/5 at work and so on, it will be easier to make these decisions, and with a year or two of experience you get more options to choose from.

You’ll never feel like you’ve mastered anything. You’re done with college so now is the time to figure out what sort of career you’d like.

Work on finding a job. You could spend a lot of time learning a stack, then get a job that is for something completely different. Your future job will dictate what you learn next.

You need to shift from education mode to employment mode.

If your financial situation allows it, I'd recommend you take some time off to recharge and reflect on what you'd want to do next. You've likely come off the hamster wheel, so to speak, and now is sorta lost. All the regular structures/incentives you relied on before is gone and there are uncertainties everywhere.

If you're not in a good financial position, stabilizing your finances would be the first priority. I would focus on developing your professional networks and reaching out to past colleagues etc for job leads/referrals. You're at a stage where you've very little to lose and everything to gain from any interaction with reality/real-world problems.

Working on AI/vibe-coding, esp understanding the fundamentals, will be advantageous as everyone is still figuring things out. Your lack of experience won't hurt you as much, since no one really have any. Be careful with using too much AI assistance for learning, as it can actually slow you down and give you a feeling of compentency/productivity without deep understanding.

Good luck!

While applying for jobs, try to build a network that's actually meaningful. Don't just blindly connect with people on LinkedIn, rather, try to develop relationships with people.

You're essentially caught in a bad spot right now and will likely need to resort to some old-school cold calling like what sales people do. Only difference will be that "no" means no here. You're selling yourself, but you don't want people to hate you while in the process of that.

The reason I'm mentioning the above is because cold-applying to random posts on LinkedIn, Indeed, etc, results in about a 5% response rate. So I mean do the cold applications because something is better than nothing, but ultimately, you're going to need to do more.

An additional reason I'm mentioning doing this form of "cold-calling" is because recruiters are overwhelmed, but no one seems to want to admit this. They are inundated with applications that all look identical, but instead of only getting 100-200 applications for a position (which is still a lot), they're getting 500+. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the cold-application response rate has dropped closer to 1%-2%.

> Has anyone been in a similar situation? What would you do if you were me?

The truth is, this downturn is a little more unique than those in the past. AI and people gaming the system is wreaking havoc on the jobs pipeline in addition to the economic aspect of things.

As for anything else you should do: turn off sensational social media and try to block the doom and gloom. It will not help you.

A lot of people do the same thing, except they have 5 years of experience on top of yours and still don't have jobs.

It sounds like you're already a good enough candidate - most people don't know and don't care about basic things like how a CDN works or what's the difference between TCP and UDP. And all the DSA grinding in the world don't help if you don't know the basics. If you go deep, you could be going deep into something with no value.

There's generally two things interviewers look for - smart and gets things done. You're smart enough, now you have to get the job.

Do you have a portfolio site of sample projects or case studies? Do you want us to critique that?

Does the college you just graduated from have a job placement office that could offer you help or advice? Some local public libraries have short courses where they give you feedback on your resume, etc. You could also look at libguides on job finding resources such as https://libguides.ccsu.edu/career/jobhunting . A "libguide" is a "library guide" that is a list of resources pertaining to a particular subject. Also, does your college have an alumni association that you could join and network with?

Don’t do full stack. In fact avoid JavaScript all together except to make yourself more well rounded.

If you want to achieve employment as a fresh graduate in the current economy you need to look for areas that have the highest barriers of entry. Otherwise you will be competing against candidates with 8-15 years of experience that may not be very good at what they do but at least they have a stacked resume while you have nothing.

As a former JavaScript developer almost nobody knows what they are doing and most of those people are permanently locked into a mindset of expert beginner with 8 years of experience. Compare that to something like 3D graphics programming or financial modeling that requires actual smart people opposed to imposter syndrome pretenders.

this is difficult, reach out to me and I will try to give you some guidance based on your situation.

It sounds like you didn’t even start life. It can take some time, keep studying, practice, and enjoy it out there.

This might sound a little controversial, but have you considered other roles in IT, not just pure development jobs?

I've been in Ops for 20+ years now and started on 1st line support for an ISP, although I had very few options without a degree (or much of an academic background really).

An entry level role might be a stepping stone to other positions within the company - and an opportunity to network with colleagues in other departments.

Over the years I built professional relationships and moved up to 2nd line and then 3rd line (sysadmin). This provided industry experience, certifications and sufficient domain knowledge to move elsewhere.

A few peers from 1st line moved over to development after they helped provide direct feedback to the devs as users of their software.

You haven't really provided any info that can help someone provide you with concrete advice.

  How are you apply to jobs?
  How many jobs have you applied for?
  What is the furthest you have gotten in the interview process?
  Are you working with any recruiters?
  Have you tried applying to another internship to see if you can convert to FTE?

" Worked in a few startups, also mainly on full-stack projects."

How did you do at those startups ? Your best bet is approach them again and ask for a potential role. Without some connections, it is extremely difficult to get a full tiem job right now in tech especially as an entry level person.

Some suggestions for you:

1. Get focussed on one stack. This is the unfortunate reality. You don't have enough real world experience to say "I can pick up any stack especially with AI". Thats what everyone else is saying. Too much noise. You need to separate yourself from the rest.

Get really really good at one stack (pick whatever you are already experienced with and double down). Then create a project or two in it (as real world as possible). Put it on a personal website. Something that shows. Don't just do the usual low quality "bootcamp" stuff. Those won't fly.

2. Approach any existing network of people you have worked with/for. You mentioned working at startups already. Start there.

3. Approach smaller companies/other startups (after #1 above) on Linkedin and make a specific case to founders directly. This is not hard. If needed, get subscription to Sales Navigator (if you can afford) and search for companies in the less than 50 employee range. Find their CEO/CTO and hit them up directly with specific message on why YOU and why you want to work for THEM. No generic BS. Be specific.

4. Be very very flexible. Mention that you will relocate for the job. Forget about Working from Home. Find whatever you can and move for it if needed. Show that you mean serious business.

These are some of the strategies that may help. It is very hard right now though. All the best.

Talk to everyone at your internships, startups, etc.

People you know is the best way to find a job.

Meanwhile, just get any kind of job because it shows you are willing to work and that’s a good impression to make.

Good luck.

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