I stopped maintaining a popular JavaScript beautifier/diff/analysis tool 4 years ago that won me several jobs.
Since then I have been working on a file streaming application. Its side items in that project that have been winning me jobs lately, primarily anything to do with full duplex socket streaming and browser test automation.
As a JavaScript developer took me months this year how to sell my experience and skills from my side projects. As a JavaScript/TypeScript developer you can do the same shit everybody else does, which is put text on screen using a giant framework. If that is the kind of employment you are looking for be prepared to degrade yourself to working with newbs that have high insecurity, low self-esteem, and spend all their time talking about how awesome they are. Its all marketing all the time, no original application code, and outsourcing everything to some external tool. As a developer you are a commodity product to hire/fire just like public is to social media. This line of work no longer interested me, so I spent months unemployed figuring this out.
Instead your alternative as a JavaScript/TypeScript developer is niche skills, which is in higher demand than it sounds. It seems almost nobody can figure out test automation in the browser. Having application architecture skills is a huge plus, which typically means Java/C# and HTTP session management with something like Spring, but if you can demonstrate a more generalized approach to application architecture you have a skill that you can adapt to a bunch of different things. It also helps having things like a security clearance and security certifications. There are a huge number of cleared developer jobs that recruiters cannot fill.
Since then I have been working on a file streaming application. Its side items in that project that have been winning me jobs lately, primarily anything to do with full duplex socket streaming and browser test automation.
As a JavaScript developer took me months this year how to sell my experience and skills from my side projects. As a JavaScript/TypeScript developer you can do the same shit everybody else does, which is put text on screen using a giant framework. If that is the kind of employment you are looking for be prepared to degrade yourself to working with newbs that have high insecurity, low self-esteem, and spend all their time talking about how awesome they are. Its all marketing all the time, no original application code, and outsourcing everything to some external tool. As a developer you are a commodity product to hire/fire just like public is to social media. This line of work no longer interested me, so I spent months unemployed figuring this out.
Instead your alternative as a JavaScript/TypeScript developer is niche skills, which is in higher demand than it sounds. It seems almost nobody can figure out test automation in the browser. Having application architecture skills is a huge plus, which typically means Java/C# and HTTP session management with something like Spring, but if you can demonstrate a more generalized approach to application architecture you have a skill that you can adapt to a bunch of different things. It also helps having things like a security clearance and security certifications. There are a huge number of cleared developer jobs that recruiters cannot fill.