How to gain experience and build a portfolio?

Question

IT education

I am writing a question, perhaps not for the first time, since the previous questions and answers to them can be considered outdated (more than 2-3 years ago).
So, I'm studying web development at geekbrains. As one famous phrase says, in order to learn to program, you need to program. And they seem to give dz, I do them, study additional materials, I often sit here, but there is a feeling that in order to go to work with customers this is still not enough, and I would like real development experience.
Now I already have js, html, css skills. I want to take on something real to replenish my portfolio. Layout of templates is all of course good, but it turns out that having laid out a template, the road goes to a dead end for me, and really, apart from any visual effects on jq, there are no more ideas. I would like to overcome this crisis and expand my experience and knowledge, since reading books, articles, etc. is certainly good, but putting into practice what I read is completely different, and especially in combat conditions
UPD:
Thank you all for your answers!
I express my deep gratitude to Vladimir Proskurin for a detailed answer, I had an idea that I will try to implement.
I am also grateful for the answer Maxim Timofeev and Ivan, which prompted the idea that all the same, in order to gain experience, it is worth going not immediately to freelance, but to the office.
Well, special thanks to lukoie for the suggestion. I am ready to accept it, but unfortunately I do not currently have the necessary skills for this, but everything is ahead.

Answer 1

So, I'm studying web development at geekbrains.

Mistake number one. Of all the newbies I've seen, those from geekbrines are the weakest. They are not taught to learn, they are taught to repeat without giving a normal theoretical and practical basis. The assignments are very weak, and the courses are superficial.
Until you read, you will practice visual effects on jQuery. Need a base. At the beginning 25% theory 75% practice. Read https://css-tricks.com , a great css book (it's a little outdated, grids are not considered, but the main base is very useful), see Yuri Artyukh (if you want to make cool animations), climb https://www.awwwards .com/ and understand how people do it. And also practice, make a website for yourself, a website for a friend, a website for a girl - for everyone.
UPD : Why is it difficult to come up with a mission close to a combat mission? Hardly anyone will give you a combat mission, because. without experience in combat missions, you will make a non-combat decision. Here are the "combat" tasks.
1) Make a matrix product calculator - warm-up.
2) Make an arkanoid game, at least on divas (and earlier, when we taught programming, game development attracted beginners, but now for some reason websites. It used to be more romantic somehow).
3) Make a personal finance application that has such functions
- a personal account
- a form for adding money to a personal account with a comment and a choice of income group (debt, salary, order, gift, etc.).
- a form for withdrawing money from a personal account with a comment and a selection of an expense group (returned a debt, bought something home, bought equipment, food, spent on a woman, etc.)
- Displaying a list of income and expenses with a filter, sorting and categories .
- creation of a schedule for automatic replenishment (cp) or withdrawal (rent, monthly fee) of funds from a personal account.
- creating a simple schedule of expenses and income. I would also add forecasting income and expenses here, at least through linear regression (yes, I love machine learning),
- adding several accounts.
This task is normal, and like a combat one, and it will come in handy for yourself, and you can put it on github - beauty.

Answer 2

I can recommend w3schools.com and learn English.

Answer 3

I won't be smart. I’ll tell you just one thing, I’m a person who is far from programming (a humanist tower), in general, I decided to do this anyway. One good company turned up, which took me without any theoretical and practical experience. Full 0 for you to understand. And from the first day I was given a project right in front of me, it consisted in writing a system for creating and editing tests, with registration and authorization of users, with further entry of all this into the database, written strictly within the framework of Node JS + MySQL (without using libraries, mostly native js)with a period of 2 months. Why am I all this, give up these classes on Geek, Google has absolutely everything you need, if not in Russian then in English for sure, and if you really need it, take some existing project and write it from scratch, then you will not have doubts about your knowledge and skills when applying for a job or writing real projects.

Answer 4

You can pay attention to htmlacademy: after the end of three intensives, there is a project called "League A": https://liga-a.ru
If you have a lot of free time and money, then you can completely go through them, and then try yourself on real projects .

Answer 5

Work on freelance exchanges for a penny first, where you will get real tasks that people need and form yourself a basic portfolio, as well as some client base. When you receive money for work, you have no choice but to realize the task, this is experience and training.

Answer 6

Look at the requirements and knowledge that customers publish. First of all, dig in that direction if you really want to work, and not only study and read books on programming and layout layout all your life. Look at other related areas, such as html5 canvas and game development on them. At first, this fascinated me very much, plus a good mind training on different algorithms and physical. object parameters!

Answer 7

How to gain experience and build a portfolio?

work hard
And what, in your opinion, is the layout, if not the layout of templates? Learn programming languages ​​if layout is not of interest.
sorry