Took a year ‘break’ after bootcamp in 2023, can I still turn this around? /u/Canninster CSCQ protests reddit

Hey all, happy holidays if you celebrate them, otherwise happy random 25th of December for no reason at all!

TL;DR: Chemical Engineer, graduated from bootcamp in August 2023, had to move abroad in September and haven’t been able to properly code. Should I try or give up?

I’m writing this post because I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. For context I graduated as a Chemical Engineer about 6 years ago, but due to the pandemic and the situation in my home country I could only land a job for 6 months. Last year I thought I’d give programming a try, I always thought it was interesting but I liked ChemE more, and signed up to a bootcamp my friend recommended, he took it and they helped him a lot and he managed to land a job with their assistance/advice. So I enrolled and honestly I liked it a lot, I really enjoyed programming, even though I knew what I was doing was extremely simple compared to what a real programmer could do, I was genuinely having fun with it, coming up with solutions, and then overcomplicating/challenging myself with more stuff just to practice some other things.

So I graduated in August last year, and had to travel in September to see family. Things happened and due to circumstances I had to move abroad, so now I live in Spain, but for the last year I haven’t touched any projects or tried to do courses, as after managing to get my PC back, I’ve mostly been focused on trying to settle in and adapt, so my github page has pretty much no activity at all. This is honestly what worries me most, as every time something like this is mentioned in subreddits like this, OP is almost always told that the gap is too large and that they should give up on getting into IT fields. I’m not exactly the most positive or optimistic person either, so seeing this kind of response usually gets me pretty down.

Our bootcamp was very simple, it was just your typical React + Python bootcamp, using Flask for API, so we obviously didn’t touch aspects like DSA. There was also no mention of Leetcode, which I’ve gotten the impression is a big deal in America, but I have no idea if it’s something that EU positions look at.

My github is not that impressive either, mostly your typical projects that people do during a bootcamp (todo list, that kinda stuff). I’ve tried applying to internship/junior positions here and there on my free time, but there really aren’t many postings online, and it feels like a waste of time/effort since anyone could see my github and notice I’m not programming much lately, or my projects aren’t exactly something to ride home about.

So my question really is, is there a chance for me? I’m not some coding genius, I can’t code Doom to run on Chrome by rendering ASCI characters, I’m just a guy who genuinely enjoys programming and wants to do it for a living, but it seems that, unlike any other field in the world, that’s just not enough for IT.

Hey all, happy holidays if you celebrate them, otherwise happy random 25th of December for no reason at all!

TL;DR: Chemical Engineer, graduated from bootcamp in August 2023, had to move abroad in September and haven’t been able to properly code. Should I try or give up?

I’m writing this post because I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. For context I graduated as a Chemical Engineer about 6 years ago, but due to the pandemic and the situation in my home country I could only land a job for 6 months. Last year I thought I’d give programming a try, I always thought it was interesting but I liked ChemE more, and signed up to a bootcamp my friend recommended, he took it and they helped him a lot and he managed to land a job with their assistance/advice. So I enrolled and honestly I liked it a lot, I really enjoyed programming, even though I knew what I was doing was extremely simple compared to what a real programmer could do, I was genuinely having fun with it, coming up with solutions, and then overcomplicating/challenging myself with more stuff just to practice some other things.

So I graduated in August last year, and had to travel in September to see family. Things happened and due to circumstances I had to move abroad, so now I live in Spain, but for the last year I haven’t touched any projects or tried to do courses, as after managing to get my PC back, I’ve mostly been focused on trying to settle in and adapt, so my github page has pretty much no activity at all. This is honestly what worries me most, as every time something like this is mentioned in subreddits like this, OP is almost always told that the gap is too large and that they should give up on getting into IT fields. I’m not exactly the most positive or optimistic person either, so seeing this kind of response usually gets me pretty down.

Our bootcamp was very simple, it was just your typical React + Python bootcamp, using Flask for API, so we obviously didn’t touch aspects like DSA. There was also no mention of Leetcode, which I’ve gotten the impression is a big deal in America, but I have no idea if it’s something that EU positions look at.

My github is not that impressive either, mostly your typical projects that people do during a bootcamp (todo list, that kinda stuff). I’ve tried applying to internship/junior positions here and there on my free time, but there really aren’t many postings online, and it feels like a waste of time/effort since anyone could see my github and notice I’m not programming much lately, or my projects aren’t exactly something to ride home about.

So my question really is, is there a chance for me? I’m not some coding genius, I can’t code Doom to run on Chrome by rendering ASCI characters, I’m just a guy who genuinely enjoys programming and wants to do it for a living, but it seems that, unlike any other field in the world, that’s just not enough for IT.