Hey guys, need some input on what to do exactly. I...

# announcements

[Nikola Milovic]

Hey guys, need some input on what to do exactly. I am in a spot where I have been working with Kotlin and Android for 1.5 years now and I've been kinda bored atm and don't know what to do. I've made several decent projects that each had specific technology that was gonna be used and learned through it. I know that most people get employed much sooner than this, but I still have 3 months of high school before I can start thinking about a job. Any recommendations on what to do to improve myself? I was thinking of starting writing some libraries, seems challenging and fun, should encourage clean and concise code. Either that or some game dev using Kotlin, that would surely be fun but I'd still want to make more stuff that can be portfolio pieces.
Edit: To add to this, thanks for reading first off, secondly, would writing libraries for things that I need or should I write existing stuff (like networking). I don't really need much and most of the stuff is covered.

[Mike]

You could also consider an existing library/framework in a space you're interested in, and contribute to that.

This will give you support of others, real users, real demands, and no need to promote your library to try and get users.

Github does a good job of tracking contributions and such, so you'll have something concrete to point to, and it will get you collaborating with others. So a more 'real-world' scenario that will teach you other skills.

[Nikola Milovic]

@Mike I've considered that. I am just a bit scared of contributing as I feel I cannot match their level or "well put together".

[Mike]

Don't be. We all had to start somewhere, and we all suffer from imposter syndrome.

Reach out to the owner, explain your situation, and ask for guidance. They'll likely be very happy to point you to some 'getting started' tasks.

[Antoine Gagnon]

I think this is the best way to progress too, if you pick a good library you’ll end up getting good criticism on your code from people with a lot more experience and you will learn a lot faster