u/Square-Squirrel2116

Hey everyone, I’m a fresher transitioning from learning theory and building tutorial-guided MERN projects to interviewing for full-time roles. While I understand the core concepts, I am facing a massive wave of imposter syndrome regarding what happens after I land a job. I’m incredibly anxious about navigating a massive production codebase, knowing how long I should struggle with a task before asking a senior for help, and managing the fear of freezing up on day one. For anyone who transitioned from a tutorial-heavy background to a professional team, how did you bridge that gap during your first few months, and what does the actual onboarding and task delegation look like for a junior?

I’m a B.Tech CSE graduate from India, and I’ve been trying to get a software job for almost 2 years with no success. I’m looking for honest guidance from people who’ve been in a similar situation.
My skills include:
MERN Stack (Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, React — basic to intermediate)
JavaScript
C++
Python (basics)
REST APIs
Manual Testing (basics)
I’ve built projects, solved coding problems, revised backend concepts, and kept applying on LinkedIn, Naukri, Wellfound, company career pages, and other portals. Still, I mostly get no response or rejections, and I’m stuck in the “need experience to get a job, need a job to get experience” loop.
I’ve also done some freelancing/microtask work, but nothing that counts as real software experience.
I’m not looking for sympathy—I want to know what I should do next:
Focus on one tech stack?
Build bigger production-level projects?
Contribute to open source?
Apply for QA/testing roles too?
Learn Java/Spring Boot?
Or try something else?
If you’ve broken into the industry after a similar gap, what actually helped?
Any honest advice or criticism is welcome. Thanks for reading.