So I’m in a little bit of a difficult situation where I have to leave my current with no other one lined up, my current job doesn’t involve technical work in any way so my resume isn’t really suited for any sort of dev job at the moment.
I am still learning programming and I am pretty good at it as is in my own opinion, and I’m confident in my ability to turn ideas into a working products but for a while I’ve been comfortable at my job which kind of led me to become stagnant in-terms of building a portfolio and making myself marketable.
The languages I know well are Python and JavaScript, I also know how to use Linux to a good extent, I’ve played around with cloud computing a little bit—mainly setting up digital ocean instances, but I also dabbled a little bit with Azure and GCP, not much on AWS though. I’ve also been very interested in AI especially after I discovered LangChain a few days ago… the idea of giving GPT and ChatGPT tools (Python Repl, llm-math, document loaders, etc) really peaked my interest.
My goal since I was teenager has been to work in the tech field and be a software developer (I am 21 now), however due to personal issues I dealt with in the last couple of years I continuously put off making a serious commitment to it, but now I am serious about doing it and I figure starting off freelancing would be a solid way to build a resume and demonstrate my abilities to a potential employer.
Ultimately that’s just a guess though since I’ve never tried to do this professionally, which is why I’m here… in your own opinion is it feasible to spend time doing freelancing in order to get professional experience to land a job or should I hold out a little while longer (get a non-tech job) and go to a coding boot camp so I can have certification and try to break into the field that way.
My mind is torn right now trying to think about this, and I honestly need a little help with it. I am open to any and all suggestions here.
What you're likely missing (besides experience) is the computer sciency theoretical stuff, which makes a difference. I'd suggest getting the big green coding interview book (Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell) and brush up on basic algorithms, data structures and general CS-speak.
I think your best bet is to start applying for jobs, be totally honest about your knowledge and experience, and try to get interviews. No matter how they go, ask for feedback, and what you should work on.
If companies think you're not ready, don't worry, they're not going to black list you. On the contrary!
I'm technically a hobbyist turned professional, but the hobbyist thing was a long time ago for me. Still, I think you should go for it.
Edited to add: another area that is likely lacking as a hobbyist is a good understanding of testing and quality control. It just isn't really that applicable to hobbyist situations most of the time. So when you do start in the industry, you'll have to change to a more test-first mindset. But just about any professional operation will have that culture these days anyway.