How do I get back into programming?
I'm 22, currently taking a gap year from university. Next year I'll graduate from a fairly renowned European university with a good degree in an arts subject with a minor in maths, and at this rate with good grades - so I'll get a "good degree".
My dad is a programmer, and he encouraged me to learn basic coding: I grew up surrounded by computers, playing video games - long story short, I spent a lot of time in my teen years messing around with computers, Linux, designing websites, learning to code in JS, Python, C++. I guess the most advanced project I ever completed was an aim-bot for Counter-Strike.
I thought I knew what I wanted to do entering university - pursuing an academic path - and I just didn't have time to program as a hobby anymore. Then in college I worked part-time in an unrelated field and I've taken a gap year to explore working in that field. I'm leaning away from that now, and I guess I'm reverting back to something I was once passionate about and could honestly see myself doing for eight hours a day at work.
Not having touched programming at all besides basic personal website-making since I was about seventeen, and at the time never being invested in any particular technology for job-seeking reasons anyway, I find learning programming all over again intimidating. But I know I'm intelligent enough to do it, I _enjoy_ it - I just don't really know where to start, or if I can genuinely self-teach myself to the point of getting hired without some kind of software diploma.
My areas of interests are fairly niche/disparate - I really enjoyed the low-level programming in the video-game hacking stuff, and I love the idea of (audio) DSP engineering. But I don't know if there are many junior roles available in those fields. I also love design _tout court_, and web and app design seems like a nice way to get into that space, but it seems like such an enormous task to learn all the different frameworks, and knowing which ones are most up-to-date and trendy in the job market.
I guess I'm asking how should I approach getting a job as a junior developer, as a graduate from a non-coding degree, with a year or so to get back into this kind of stuff? What are the technologies to get into for safe junior dev jobs? Should I just make some kind of portfolio?
Thank you guys! Not a direct answer but more career advice. Can you combine your degree with programming? It seems like a waste to throw out a good degree. Start programming as a hobby before throwing your hat over the wall? There are few jobs in low-level programming, but of course, if you are very skilled, you can always find work. There are plenty of books and websites where you can learn it. If you genuinely regret your degree, then there is a way. My degree is philosophy and mathematics, so not really - of course I'd happily work as a front-end developer for some philosophy journal or magazine, but that's way too narrow to be feasible. I don't regret my degree - I do think it's a good one, and when I tell people what I study they often (embarassingly) exclaim that I must be really clever - I guess it's something that would pique recruiters/employers' interests. The maths I studied was about 85% pure mathematics, so I don't have any serious statistical/data experience either (but I don't think I'd like to work in data anyway). Yes, I was under that impression as to low-level openings, especially with junior roles. Thanks for the advice.