Join #C064BA6G2 and #CBJ5CGE0G if you're not already in those channels. There are some strong, thriving pockets of Clojure in the UK and in Europe but it is very much a niche language so there aren't a lot of jobs. On the positive side, there aren't a lot of candidates competing for those jobs. I would recommend attending the (virtual) meetups so folks are familiar with your name and finding a few OSS projects that you're interested in and getting involved with their communities -- contributing to documentation and testing are often very valuable aspects of a project that not enough people seem to spend time on as users.

Welcome! I don't think you need a portfolio, really. I might just start knocking on the doors of Clojure shops in the UK. They may or may not have anything for you, but they won't bite. I wouldn't wait for a job listing that you feel qualified for - anyplace with potential need is unlikely to make a public posting, because of all the work of sifting through the deluge of applications that would follow.

Yeah, I pressed send a bit too soon but was going to add what Nick said. Getting to know people and having the community get to know you and your interactions with their projects is a good way to make an introduction that will help you get in the door.

Thanks both! That seems like good advice. If I can connect with the community more it should help keep me motivated and learn faster too.

I'm not in Europe but I quite literally just kept applying to jobs, even with virtually zero experience

Wow. They were willing to let you learn on the job?

Some were interested in my open source contributions and personal projects. Especially since applicants apparently don't know what Clojure is (or at least that was the case at one place I applied to), so someone who has sat down and finished projects with the language stood out more than applicants who would need time to learn

Others were more strict and said "sorry we need exactly X years of experience minimum"

what I will say is: for recruiters that are willing to take a look at these things, please dont attempt cheating by sending them a git repo with a bunch of empty folders and a README inside -- they can see through that and one hiring manager told me about someone who attempted to get away with this (needless to say, that applicant was not given an offer)

once you get your foot in the door, its a lot easier to apply to clojure jobs IME, even if your first job is actually an internship

And I will say, as a long-time hiring manager, that if someone promotes their GitHub projects or a portfolio site, I will look at it with a critical eye: I'm going to assume that the quality of that work represents the sort of quality that I'll get as an employer so if it's poorly-documented or has no tests, for example, that's a red flag.

(as a hiring manager, I will not "mark down" a resume/CV for not linking to GH/portfolio stuff -- not every candidate is in a position to spend time on open source or other side projects)