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OP, I’ve been reading your replies in this thread, and in my humble opinion I think you need to re-evaluate your worth. If you believe you’re only worth a minimum wage job, then it’s not surprising if you end up in a minimum wage job.

This industry is rife with imposter syndrome. But you know what the thing about imposter syndrome is, is only the people who know enough to know that they don’t know everything feel it. Do you truly know nothing about programming, or are you a boss babe with a couple of years of formal education in the field?

If you really feel that you don’t have the experience to get an entry level job, then you deserve to do something for yourself to raise your confidence. Start a project, especially if your education has been mostly theoretical. It can be difficult at first, especially if you feel like you don’t know where to start. But in my experience, even the most difficult problem can be broken up into small, manageable pieces. I think you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll learn to build stuff, and you’ll be getting some real experience to. You might even wonder why you were ever worried in the first place.

if it helps, I was sending out custom CVs to companies for two years to the tune of 10+ a day before I got hired for my first “real” tech job.
after working here for years, I really realize how little I knew and how badly I came off.

I put this is a comment but felt it was reverential to the entire thread I guess

I think a studio somewhere is about the best I can do, living at home is kinda ugh, and I have been doing that for the past few years and living here has been sadly a hot pocket for my mental illness. keep mind if I did leave it would still be in the south. I am just kinda considering a min wage job since I don’t really see a way to get into tech now, and I need a lot of thing to survive sadly including ADHD meds and likely something to stop my depressive episodes from getting this bad. After that I will likely be okay to kinda work on software dev stuff in my free time and maybe do an online bachelors part time while trying to build the portfolio I did not during my years in college. I doubt it will be pleasant working at Target or something and living in a studio apartment I almost not afford but it’s better than nothing

I’m not too familiar on how it works in the US but from my experience it’s easier to start at a lower position and move up internally, tech support or sys admin for example. But again, I’m completely ignorant how it is in the US, this is all based on Europe.

I never got a university degree but the position I applied to was junior sys admin and I asked for a pretty low salary. I worked a year there and made myself irreplaceable enough and looked for better offers to leverage that and got a raise along with a better position. That was like 10 years ago and now I’m in devops instead where I can do pretty much anything, including development, though I prefer sys admin tasks, with those I need to work like 4 hours a week if automation works as it should. Oh and never tell anyone you don’t have enough to do, that will just land you more work for no pay.

I think a studio somewhere is about the best I can do, living at home is kinda ugh, and I have been doing that for the past few years and living here has been sadly a hot pocket for my mental illness. keep mind if I did leave it would still be in the south. I am just kinda considering a min wage job since I don’t really see a way to get into tech now, and I need a lot of thing to survive sadly including ADHD meds and likely something to stop my depressive episodes from getting this bad. After that I will likely be okay to kinda work on software dev stuff in my free time and maybe do an online bachelors part time while trying to build the portfolio I did not during my years in college. I doubt it will be pleasant working at Target or something and living in a studio apartment I almost not afford but it’s better than nothing

You are unprepared for this industry because it is saturated, even moreso now that AI is considered a part of the application pool, and every employer does something that wasn’t taught in your classes. The hiring process is designed to be brutal. It is what separates the engineers from the programmers, and the programmers from the script kiddies. It isn’t for everyone unless you have the drive for it.

You will have to try harder if you want to get somewhere in this industry. That also means further learning, whether at university or on your own. This is a lesson I am still learning after almost 20 years. I graduated with a comp sci associates in 2008, and worked on a contract basis throughout my 20s and early 30s. I still have nothing to show for it in my late 30s, because I let every negative experience push me backwards, to the point where the career just crashed and burned, and I ended up at McDonald’s. Don’t make those same mistakes.

You are going to have to pay your bills in any way possible, even if that means working a “min wage job”, which has absolutely no shame. You don’t have to give up your dream if you work at Target. Not everything has to be an absolute. You can work at Target while working on a side project that will give you those 1 billion GitHub contributions.

Put in the work.

I think I am gonna get someone to look at resume, and maybe try to get a support job. Ya know like Comcast, or whatever. I think I might have half decent odds.

I feel others covered what’s needed, but just wanted to say don’t give up. Yes, you may have to do some odd or non ideal jobs, but just don’t lose your passion. I know from personal experience.