First of all, calling someone a useless lamer is about as unprofessional as it gets. Next, don't get into an argument during an interview. State your points and

First of all, calling someone a useless lamer is about as unprofessional as it gets. Next, don't get into an argument during an interview. State your points and if they don't agree, move on. Take some of what they say with you as food for thought. Take the interview as a learning experience and learn from it. Next, you probably need to go back to the basics. Pick up an introductory programming textbook, in PDF form if you are cutting your expenses. Learn basic OOP, basic algorithms and data structures, runtime complexity, functional programming, understanding when you would choose what tool. There is nothing worse than a senior programmer who can only think in the paradigm of the programming language they have accidentally built their career upon. If you don't demonstrate a basic understanding of these things, and aren't able to speak to the above within the context of jQuery, then you are at a disadvantage. Learning another framework is not the solution. It's a bandaid at best. You will just find yourself in the same position again in a few years when your tool of choice falls out of favor. Break the cycle by becoming a software engineer. In terms of your living situation, congratulations on buying a place. If you run out of time or money then rent out your apartment and move abroad where you can live on a lower cost of living, but I think you can and should make your stand now against becoming a useless lamer.