Do some open source work in your part time this will - Improve your skills. - Teach you to work on a dev team (assuming you join another project rather than s

Do some open source work in your part time this will - Improve your skills. - Teach you to work on a dev team (assuming you join another project rather than start your own). - Stand out against other candidates on your CV (open source is like the sleeper car of qualifications). - Provide concrete examples of your work to new employers (many _backend_ candidates don't give examples of their work). - Provide a talking point to help deflect or defend against areas where you have lack of experience.