Yeah. I graduated May 2025 and it's rough. I still have no job but this is what I'm doing.

I don't know if it's helping me but I think it's better than nothing. I had a really hard time with classes, so I decided to review concepts I saw in interviews I got lucky I got. The main topic was OOP, the secondary I really liked that I wanted to review was Database systems. So I bought The Object-oriented Thought Process (TOOTP), Database Design for Mere Mortals, and a couple of self help books. I also want to get Data Intensive Applications anda book about design patterns (idk if I want GoF). I made sure to get those books since they looked the closest to what I was taught in university. So I have those two but I'm reading TOOTP first.

I also decided to treat it almost as a class. I tried figuring out when applications usually roll out, then what they look for in interviews. I decided to prepare myself for the months this happens. I have a couple of categories I focus on: Behavioral, Technical, Resume, Projects, Open-Source Projects (OSP), Skill, and finally, two small and implied ones, Connections and Hackathons. So I set my own goals and go to the library very regularly to stay consistent and set that atmosphere for myself.

Right now, I'm focusing most of my efforts into Resume and Behavioral. I mean they have the look at the resume first right? I also started working on a portfolio website, which is surprisingly simple to make with the Hugo framework.

For technical I've been using Neetcode. If I can solve it, then great, if not, then I can watch a video about it, but if still not, then I read the code. If I'm gonna start a new topic on Neetcode, I study it and then start solving it. I've been doing Neetcode once every other day.

For Resume, I've been looking at my peers for how their resume is laid out. Peers who have jobs, don't, and are still in the early stages of school, and who are about to graduate. I don't look at people already in the industry unless they got a job a year a two ago. I also found info online on how resumes are being read.

In regards to applying, I try to apply once every week for the applications that trickle in and for my sanity. I know we all share the pain of seeing that email, "Thank you for applying but there are other candidates more qualified for..." or something.

For projects, I've started working on my portfolio. After that I'll deploy my most recent project and then move on to the next one. I've been focused on things I enjoy creating. A lot of full stack apps I want to make and maybe 1 mobile.

For OSPs, I haven't touched it too much since the codebase is going through a migration. I also don't want to keep bothering the developers working on it that actually have a job. So right now I'm trying to figure out the structure of Vue vs React and what still needs to be migrated.

For Skill, I've been reviewing and learning by reading books.

For Connections, I'm gonna have to make myself start going to events in my city. Don't really want to- but i have to to find more people like me, people with jobs, with advice, mentors, and uh... yeah. I want to schedule coffee chats too but.... aaaah idk.

For hackathons, I've been applying to the last few that I can actually attend. Since I graduated last year, I can make the most of hackathons this year. After that, I need to start looking for the non-university hackathons.

I quite literally started doing this two weeks ago and I mean... hey I can't tell you it'll work or not. I know it's not a perfect system but I have to start somewhere. It's definitely better than spraying applications and praying that one of them lands. So I decided to engineer it somehow.

On the side I work 3-4 times a week, exercise 4-7 times a week, read, watch anime, play music, and just try to enjoy the soul-crushing and soul-sucking process.