I'm learning java, the problem is where to go next?

Question

Java

Good afternoon everyone.
The point is this ...
I'm 23. I graduated from the university, I was looking for a job in my specialty for a year (mechanical engineer), while working as a sales assistant. There is nothing good, and if there is, then the salary is so meager that it is enough for bread and water.
After some thought, I decided to go into the IT industry, but that meant learning everything from scratch, at the university we taught qbasic, which no one needs at all. In general, I have a head on my shoulders and I want you to advise where to go next.
I started learning Java using Horstmann's book, I also use some video tutorials and articles, slowly but surely I am gaining knowledge. I'll get to SQL soon.
The essence of the question is that I get this knowledge, I try to apply it in solving problems that I find on the net.
But in order to get a job as a junior developer, I need to do at least two projects, or help someone do them.
This is the catch, I still can’t create a project without help, and I don’t really know what project to do.
Can you share your experience, I think you have been in such situations, especially if you yourself started to learn programming. In which direction should I go?

Answer 1

But to get a job as a junior developer, I need to do at least two projects

What is the problem? Take it and do it. You don't need to do anything super serious. You just need to show that you can work with the development environment and know the basics of the Java language. No more is required of a trainee.
These are the skills you need to demonstrate. Enough free courses to get primary skills. For example, this one . Play the examples carefully.
A good Eclipse development environment ( https://eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide... ). There are books in Russian, there are articles and documentation.

Answer 2

Learn English. The employer may even turn a blind eye to your swimming knowledge of java if you know English well.

Answer 3

You can try to make edits to open source projects on GitHub, you can also just write to companies that are recruiting juniors so that they send you at least a test task and do them, and also study at least the basic algorithms and data structures.