... and now I'm job-hunting in earnest and jfcsstrrssfgchujbgfryhgftyhgerswww. I hope this is the right place to vent about this sort of thing, but I'm feeling so incredibly stressed and frustrated because I really want to change careers (TEFL teaching is a dead end, and the conditions have got so much worse in recent years) and I know I could do a junior frontend job perfectly well — I've put so much with into getting good at it in my own time — but it's beginning to dawn on me that there's basically no way in to the industry unless you know someone who can help you get a foot in the door.
I don't know where I'm going with this tbh — I just needed to vent somewhere — but it would be nice to hear any advice anyone can offer, or even just the lamentations of anyone with similar experiences...
The industry is very, very bad right now. I have done software dev for close to 15 years and I'll be two years unemployed in January. I don't know how much of this can be attributed to my very specific medical needs but I can say for a fact that I have had these needs longer than I have been of working age and I have never had this much trouble finding a job before even just cold calling and never, ever as someone with my current level of experience. I genuinely don't know what to tell people looking to break in. Keep at it as long as you can, and if you can't, I don't blame you.