[cglee]

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this topic and I've come to the conclusion that the best generic advice for folks in your situation is to be under-employed, ie a job where you're not maxed out mentally/emotionally/physically, and save your resources to learn on your own.

Entry-level technical jobs are some of the worst jobs to help you ramp up as a programmer. It's chaotic, demanding, emotionally taxing, and a lot of blind leading the blind. And most importantly, employers expect you to perform "just in time" learning, which is detrimental long-term if you don't yet have strong foundations.

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago about Learning at Work: https://medium.com/launch-school/learning-at-work-c81b6866b0...

Of course, map these thoughts to your specific situation.

[echelon]

I agree. I don't think anyone can get a job not knowing anything.

It's best to keep up your energy and learn on your own time and interest.

Pick projects that you're interested in. A website, a small little todo app, a small game. These introduce fundamentals in a setting you enjoy. You'll do a ton of things wrong, know you did them wrong, and the recognition of that provides all the next steps you need.

Five to ten projects later, you'll be ready to start taking some small jobs. Open source tickets. Charity work.

Do this a little bit longer and you'll be set.

It's fundamentally about doing projects you enjoy though. You need to take interest and defend that interest long enough to overcome the stresses and the road bumps.

You can do it!