Don't refer to Java as "lower level language" in an interview. With so much demand for programmers you can probably get your foot in the door with a PhD and so

Don't refer to Java as "lower level language" in an interview. With so much demand for programmers you can probably get your foot in the door with a PhD and some code samples, if you can get through the interview process. Not every company does the grueling whiteboard coding and puzzle interviews. The best way to get a job as I've answered here x^N times is through people you know. If you approach getting a job by filling out online applications you are playing a lottery and competing with thousands of other applicants. Your application will get screened by keyword-matching software and maybe looked at by HR staff. Better to go around that process through contacts. Ask everyone you know about jobs where they work, and make a point of meeting more people in the business by going to meetups, tech talks, etc. You probably have a lot of contacts from school, talk to them. At this point in your career I would suggest getting fairly deep with one combination of language, frameworks, tools that are most widely used: JS/Node/React, PHP/Laravel, Python/Django/ML, Java/*, etc. It's good to learn other languages but the market for Haskell and Clojure (for example) is much smaller and the people going for those jobs will almost certainly have significant real-world experience. I have recommended learning SQL and C as foundational skills, I think you will need to understand databases. You don't need to know C at this point (that's a real low-level language). If you plan to get into web development there's no way around learning HTML, CSS, and at least the basics of the HTTP protocol. You will have to know version control (git) and at least the agile buzzwords pretty much anywhere you go. It helps to know your way around the Unix/Linux shell (command line) and the common tools. You should get proficient with at least one programming editor and an IDE. I wrote a long-ish article about job hunting and interviewing a while back. It's been a while since I interviewed for a job, and even longer since I worked in Silicon Valley, but you might find something useful. https://typicalprogrammer.com/job-hunting-interviewing https://typicalprogrammer.com/job-hunting-interviewing