graduated but no jobs

Hi HN,

I just graduated from college and don’t have a job yet. I’m trying to figure out what to focus on next, and I’d love some advice.

A little about me:

– I contribute to open-source projects.

– I’ve done a few internships during college, mainly building full-stack web apps.

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

– Built full-stack apps for clients.

– Ran a fun YouTube channel for a few months.

– Built some AI-powered apps using tools like OpenAI.

– Solved 100+ DSA problems to improve my coding skills.

With AI tools now, I can build full-stack apps by prompting and understand all the code. But I’m not sure what to focus on next: Should I deeply master a stack like MERN, or keep experimenting with AI and building different projects?

I’ve tried a lot of things — side projects, internships, open-source, AI apps — but I don’t feel like I’ve truly mastered anything yet.

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

Thanks in advance.

4 points | by teminal 2 hours ago

4 comments

  • cleartext412 1 hour ago
    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.

    [-]
  • al_borland 51 minutes ago
    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.

  • bix6 1 hour ago
    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.
  • toomuchtodo 2 hours ago
    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.