Due to unfortunate circumstances and stupid decisions, right now all I have going for me is a Computer Programming Diploma from Humber, and 4 years of experience working part-time for a business that teaches kids to code (I'm basically a manager but still get paid minimum wage).

I'm technically currently enrolled at Western, but I don't have the financial support to go back next semester. I'm currently trying to find out if I can switch to an Online program, but the red tape is horrific right now. Then I have the option of going back to Humber and going for their Cybersecurity Comp Sci BSc. But I think it would take 3 years. On the plus side, it's affordable and closeby, and I can keep working at my current job or new job if I (hopefully) get one. Plus there's co-op opportunities, and I think cybersecurity is slightly more secure right now.

Or I could just pour all my energy into looking for a new job with what little experience I have, and give up on school. That being said, I took a gap year from Western and have been applying since April 2025 and only got 3 interviews that went nowhere.

What do I do?

I'm trying to make my first API with an accompanying website, and I'm using tutorials. I decided the MERN stack was the way to go, since it seemed popular and easy.

I have some experience with SQL itself, but have never connected a database to an actual application.

So I got to the point of making my database in mongoDB when I saw some stuff about how mySQL is more secure than noSQL, and how noSQL has some disadvantages.

The api/website I'm making is just a pet project, but if it ever does become popular, would I have to move my databases? Or is this a "cross that bridge if/when I get there" situation?

Alternatively can I have the same database in multiple places at once? As in, bot mySQL and noSQL?

I'm trying to join some... not entirely sure what they're called. Like those projects where a group of people all work on a single community project. I hear discord is a good place for stuff like that. And beginner hackathons too. Any advice would be super helpful. Edit: Open Source Projects is what I meant 😅

Sorry, I know this isn't exactly a dev question, but how do I make a project without a tutorial? I know how to make functional code that does simple things, or to solve a problem/question. But nw I want to try to make some projects to add to my portfolio. I've found websites with different ideas, and I can find some tutorials, but what if I don't have a tutorial? Like, what do I do if I want to make something from scratch myself?

• I was applying to a job, and then I had to answer a question about web scraping, which I'm not familiar with. I answered all the other questions with no issue, so I decided might as well put in the effort to learn the basics and see if I can do it in a day.
• Yes, it was *somewhat * easier than I expected, but I still had to watch like 4 YouTube videos and read a bunch of reddit and stack overflow posts.
• I got the code working, but I decided to run it again to double-check. It stopped working. Not sure why.
• Testing is also annoying because the "web page" is a google doc and constantly reloads or something. It takes forever to get proper results from my print statements.
• I attached an image with the question. I haven't heard back from them, and I've seen other people post what I think might be this exact question online, so hopefully I'm not doing anything illegal.
• At this point, I just want to solve it. Here's the code:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

def createDataframe(url): #Make the data easier to handle
    #Get the page's html data using BeautifulSoup
    page = requests.get(url)
    soup = BeautifulSoup(page.text, 'html.parser')

    #Extract the table's headers and column structure
    table_headers = soup.find('tr', class_='c8')
    table_headers_titles = table_headers.find_all('td')
    headers = [header.text for header in table_headers_titles]

    #Extract the table's row data
    rows = soup.find_all('tr', class_='c4')
    row_data_outer = [row.find_all('td') for row in rows]
    row_data = [[cell.text.strip() for cell in row] for row in row_data_outer]

    #Create a dataframe using the extracted data
    df = pd.DataFrame(row_data, columns=headers)
    return df

def printMessage(dataframe): #Print the message gotten from the organised data
    #Drop rows that have missing coordinates
    dataframe = dataframe.dropna(subset=['x-coordinate', 'y-coordinate'], inplace=True)

    #Convert the coordinate columns to integers so they can be used
    dataframe['x-coordinate'] = dataframe['x-coordinate'].astype(int)
    dataframe['y-coordinate'] = dataframe['y-coordinate'].astype(int)

    #Determine how large the grid to be printed is
    max_x = int(dataframe['x-coordinate'].max())
    max_y = int(dataframe['y-coordinate'].max())

    #Create an empty grid
    grid = np.full((max_y + 1, max_x + 1), " ")

    #Fill the grid with the characters using coordinates as the indices
    for _, row in dataframe.iterrows():
        x = row['x-coordinate']
        y = row['y-coordinate']
        char = row['Character']
        grid[y][x] = char
    for row in grid:
        print("".join(row))

test = 'https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQGUck9HIFCyezsrBSnmENk5ieJuYwpt7YHYEzeNJkIb9OSDdx-ov2nRNReKQyey-cwJOoEKUhLmN9z/pub'
printMessage(createDataframe(test))

My most recent error:

C:\Users\User\PycharmProjects\dataAnnotationCodingQuestion\.venv\Scripts\python.exe C:\Users\User\PycharmProjects\dataAnnotationCodingQuestion\.venv\app.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\User\PycharmProjects\dataAnnotationCodingQuestion\.venv\app.py", line 50, in <module>
    printMessage(createDataframe(test))
  File "C:\Users\User\PycharmProjects\dataAnnotationCodingQuestion\.venv\app.py", line 30, in printMessage
    dataframe['x-coordinate'] = dataframe['x-coordinate'].astype(int)
                                ~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

Process finished with exit code 1

I know this seems like a very obvious question. But I mean with regards to job searches. Even internships seem to require a variety of skills these days. I'm interested in both web development and just recently have considered data analysis. Should I work on tutorials and personal projects for a single skill or framework at a time? Or make small projects across a wide variety of things so I can put those skills on my resume?

Like if I'm using print statements to test my code. Is it okay to leave stuff like that in there when "publishing" the app/program?

Edit: So I meant logging. Not "tests". Using console.log to see if the code is flowing properly. I'll study up on debugging. Also, based on what I managed to grasp from your very helpful comments, it is not okay to do, but the severity of how much of an issue it is depends on the context? Either that or it's completely avoidable in the first place if I just use "automated testing" or "loggers".

Was going through a Python tutorial, but it seems kinda dated. Wanted to know if people regularly use docstrings in the workforce. Or are they somewhat irrelevant because you can convey most of that info via comments and context? Do jobs make you use them?