I know this sucks, and its relatively common, but it gets better. One thing I could not wrap myself around is how this novice kid goes on to Advice companies w

I know this sucks, and its relatively common, but it gets better. One thing I could not wrap myself around is how this novice kid goes on to Advice companies what they have to do in order to hire junior developers. This is completely upside down. In general, companies are well aware why they hire/fire you (even if they are not very open about it). The number one reason to fire a novice worker is cash flow. If you find yourself short of money and want to keep the lights on for the most time possible, you try to retain your top performers above all else. First they go for the older guys with mid-to-low performance and little growth prospects. If there is none, they cut the most junior first. Don't take it personally, stuff happens. Other reason is if the young person fails to climb the learning curve. They probably wont tell you this directly, and 4 months is a bit short time to judge in my opinion, but it can happen. Other than that, the way out of the catch 22 is to work on your skills. They can refuse to give you a job as a coder, but they cannot prevent you from coding on your own time. Get whatever job you can land in order to pay the bills, and make an honest effort to moonlight at least 10 hrs per week on your own projects.