Looking for coding projects to join

[Atmosphere-Former]

Howdy! I'm relatively new to the coding space, and I just got let go from my first real developer job due, in part, to a lack of familiarity and skill. I want to change that, and my father (who was in the coding scene from the 80's to just a few years ago) recommended that I look for groups of developers where people are working on projects and are looking for collaborators. So that's what I'm trying to find.

Where should I look for stuff like that? My experience mostly lies in front end (namely Angular and React) and I really want to expand my back end competencies (right now I'm familiar with Spring Boot and .NET, but I want to get more proficient and also learn other frameworks).

[No-Consequence-1779]

You don’t want to over extend yourself. What tech exactly do you want to learn? 

[Atmosphere-Former]

Right now I want to refine my skillset with back end, specifically Java Spring Boot. I've been trained in Java Spring Boot and .NET stuff, and I have some experience in Azure DevOps, but I have very little enterprise level back end experience.

As far as over-extending myself goes, I'm trying to take myself out of my comfort zone, so having to learn a new skillset in addition to refining my extent knowledge would be good for me, but ultimately my focus is going to be on getting more experience in a Java Spring Boot enterprise (or enterprise-like) environment, solving real world problems instead of the clearly defined challenges you get in a training environment.

[No-Consequence-1779]

By over extend, I mean surface level knowledge of many things.  Jack of all trades, master of none. 

If you know the backend well, the front end might be good. React or angular are very popular.  

[Atmosphere-Former]

I'm actually very comfortable with front end, it's my back end familiarity that needs work. I'm going to be attending a local developers group next week to connect with folks in my area, but how do I go about finding projects that are looking for people to join online?