jellykid

Working in IT feels like you are trying to hit a moving target. We are constantly expected to have X amount of years of experience with whatever the latest trend is. The first modern smart phone, the iPhone, isn't even 20 years old. The way we build applications has been completely transformed in the past 10-15 years. Everything is expected to be scalable, highly available and automated. Honestly, I understand why things are moving in that direction, but how is anyone expected to keep up and hold down a full-time job? I feel like I've been training my whole life for something that has ever changing requirements. Every company wants senior people that are experts with their unique combination of tools, but they don't want to hire people capable of learning those tools.

It's been ~15 years since I started my IT career. I've worked with so many different technologies that I have a hard time remembering them all. I've taken deep dives into some domains to get a better understanding of how everything interconnects. I'm constantly learning new things, which I'm OK with, but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. Most of the time, I remember what some of the steps are or at least the direction we should move in, but I can't remember every single part of that path. My strength lies in having a good base understanding of technology and my ability to troubleshoot complex issues, combined with a bit of tenacity and perseverance. Conveying any of this on a resume or through rounds of panel interviews is like an exercise in frustration. "What? You can't remember off the top of your head some CLI commands obscure options? ... and you call yourself an engineer, pfft." Like JFC, that's what docs are for. That's why man pages exist.

Anyway, I'm curious how that guy who left IT and became a goat farmer is doing.

I have been studying JS for 2 years in my spare time and working in general IT for 6 years. I am looking to land a full stack dev job but I feel like my portfolio is lacking. Node/React/Redux/Redux-Saga are some technologies I would love to work in and have been making little projects but I don't have anything that really stands out. Can anyone give me some example projects that I can put together to show of my programming chops?

Also bonus points if anyone can give me a good place to find my first position ... or even make some connections. I'm in the "need experience to get experience" catch 22 that a lot of people who are starting off get into.