Pick an area and get good enough at it to get hired. e.g. .NET Desktop apps .NET Web apps Webforms,.NET Web Apps MVC, Java web apps, Python web apps. In other words pick a set of tools (IDE, database) and build things with them. The .NET environment tooling is different from the Java environment despite both being application programming languages. Same can be said for front end web dev or even developing on a different platform e.g. if you use Windows, Mac or Linux. Don't try and learn loads of different platforms to begin with as when you get a job it is likely the main project you are working in will be a single platform. You can learn lots of other platforms once you are hired. Once you have a job after a year you will be able to apply for other jobs such is the demand in the UK. Also you end up repeating yourself which is pointless, for example i'm doing a uni course where I am learning Python and using it to parse HTML and XML. I already have 5+ years experience with C# and .NET so I could do it much quicker with this. I'm not sure I need to know another language currently to perform this task (using Python as it's required for the course). Although learning more than one language is a great thing to do, it's something to do after you have published with your first language. Be willing to apply for jobs outside of a 20 mile radius of where you live and maybe be willing to move. I stayed in the same area but it took me ages after uni to find a job as I only searched in my local area when there are 1000s of developer jobs uk wide. Search for different programming types online and focus on one. Watch training videos on Pluralsight (worth the monthly cost). Pay to speed up your learning - e.g. buy some hosting or cloud credits so you can actually do stuff. It's all good reading loads but if you have done it once this will help when you start a job. This point will be controversial but if you are learning .NET you can start with VB.NET as it is easy to pick up. You can then learn C# alongside or a few months after as it uses the same libraries. You might not want to tarnish your brain this way (learning VB) but it is easy to pick up also there is a lot of demand for Excel VBA which is practically the same (just a different environment). You are always going to need to know SQL and probably XML. Build a tool/write some code which takes a JSON or XML file, serialises it to objects and then inserts it into a database. If you don't know what this is then Google how to do each t

You won't want to work for every company anyway - some places will have developers who will try and hand hold you because you are new. They will try to restrict you and have a go if you don't do something there way. These people are usually stuck in their own rut and you can go way past them within a year or two. Don't show too much respect to these "Gurus". They are the sort of people who will deliberate for months over upgrading to a new IDE or worry about upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10. Just download the latest newest version and get on with it. Setup VMs and have both. Set up your own servers and test environments so you can try stuff out. Jump in at the deep end and with a few years experience you will move past these people. It is good to have a mentor but you can achieve a similar thing watching videos online. In a work or apprenticeship environment it can be very slow and sometimes patronising especially if you're already pretty senior in your current role. Don't throw away what you know from your current job - try and write some software that uses your expertise in this area as the domain subject whilst learning the development platform. Pick an area and get good enough at it to get hired. e.g. .NET Desktop apps .NET Web apps Webforms,.NET Web Apps MVC, Java web apps, Python web apps. In other words pick a set of tools (IDE, database) and build things with them. The .NET environment tooling is different from the Java environment despite both being application programming languages. Same can be said for front end web dev or even developing on a different platform e.g. if you use Windows, Mac or Linux. Don't try and learn loads of different platforms to begin with as when you get a job it is likely the main project you are working in will be a single platform. You can learn lots of other platforms once you are hired. Once you have a job after a year you will be able to apply for other jobs such is the demand in the UK. Also you end up repeating yourself which is pointless, for example i'm doing a uni course where I am learning Python and using it to parse HTML and XML. I already have 5+ years experience with C# and .NET so I could do it much quicker with this. I'm not sure I need to know another language currently to perform this task (using Python as it's required for the course). Although learning more than one language is a great thing to do, it's something to do after you have published with your first language. Be willing to apply for jobs outside of a 20 mile radi