Better your project or the full scope of the necessary knowledge?

Question

JavaScript

I have no combat experience in programming, but I have a general idea (institutional labs in Delphi, minimal OOP and script crafts in Python etc. + understanding of computer architecture and C). I want to switch to programmers from my current job, and for myself I see two paths, between which I have been fidgeting for almost a year: either to make an ephemeral, but interesting to me, Pet-Project on Java / Android, which will still require a minimal back-end later, or take a more classic path for late juniors: html/css/js/React + Node | .NET | Django...
The catch is that the android project is somewhat adventurous and, although there are prerequisites for success, I can end up in a highly competitive android-dev segment with minimal knowledge of Java, for which there is a high entry threshold and a large number of applicants everywhere. I don't see the possibility to implement the project in the form of SPA/PWA/React Native...

Answer 1

I would vote for my project, because only in real conditions there are questions and situations that cannot be read about in textbooks. When I started doing real projects, I just went nuts at first from the volume of problems, about which there is not a word in the manuals.

Answer 2

I never thought that there were "classic" paths for juniors. If you try hard, you can get a job as a junior and haskell. There is a point here: working in a team, you learn much faster than alone. So as soon as you get the opportunity to change jobs - go for it. But as a rule, even juniors require a certain amount of knowledge. There is such an observation - the first 5,000 lines of code of any programmer are slag. No one will hire a person who writes trash. Therefore, you should take care of your projects. I wouldn't expect commercial success from them. No sauce at all. Set goals early. To get an app that will do everything for me is a much more appropriate goal. And in what direction to develop - front-end or mobile, or back-end, maybe go to BigData or ComputerVision? - it is important that you like it more. What exactly attracts you - go there. Because the one who enjoys what he does as much as possible achieves maximum success.

Answer 3

It is not necessary to do "your own project", you can do some laboratory work for training. Let it be simple here - learn the basics of the language and the platform using examples, tasks from courses or a pet project, and then get a job as early as possible. When setting up, first of all, choose a lead and a team so that they teach good things and have someone to learn from.
And the choice of a niche is an individual one.