Ask HN:Finding a Break
physcab: You should look for small web development firms that might offer internships.  Right now I'm doing an unpaid internship.  I don't have a car and the place is 10 miles away, so everyday I take the bus for 5 miles, bike the other 5 miles, then do the same thing coming home.  It's a ton of work for an unpaid job.  The work is stressful.  But I'm learning the best practices of coding, how to scale applications accordingly, and my work actually benefits the company.  This has been such an ideal opportunity, because before coding was just a hobby and so I hadn't been challenged.  But now that I've found a good community of programmers and designers, I learn new lessons everyday and build up confidence in my skills.