Fatma

Career & Study Mentee

I'm Fatma, I just graduated from CS and I feel very overwhelmed about what path I should take next. A lot of my overwhelm comes from feeling pressured by my family, and I feel like I can't even think clearly about what I should be doing.

I constantly feel underqualified and struggle to market myself or have enough confidence to actually apply for jobs. I feel like I'm stuck in a loop of wanting to apply, but thinking I need a polished portfolio first—and then realizing I need to build projects to have that portfolio.

For now, I want to pursue web development jobs. I'm learning Django and React, but whenever I look at freelance websites, I see very specific requirements and technologies. It makes me question whether what I'm learning is actually useful in the market, and I end up feeling like I need to learn something else. I'm scared of switching to another field only to find that it's out of demand by the time I become good at it.

I'd also like to have some source of income to build my confidence and relieve some of the pressure from my family. I'm mainly interested in handmade crafts, and I'd love to explore turning that into a business, but I don't have the confidence to take that leap and abandon my tech career.

Long-term, I think I want to move into data engineering. I also want to pursue a Master's in Germany and hopefully live there after getting married, which should be within the next year. So right now, I don't know what I should prioritize.

Ultimately, I want to learn enough web development to become employable, start gaining some real experience and income, and then work toward data engineering and eventually my Master's in Germany. I feel like I'm constantly worrying that I'm too late and wasting time trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing instead of actually doing it.

I'm hoping to find a mentor who can help me step back, make sense of all these options, and give me some practical direction on what I should focus on now rather than trying to figure out my entire future at once.

More about this mentee:

• Member since 20 days

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