Getting a job with 0 experience

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to go about getting a job as a full-stack web developer with no experience.
Here is a little background. I have lived in Japan for a while and I speak Japanese ( I struggle with Keigo). I have been teaching English for a long time and about 2 years ago I started to study programming. I started just watching youtube videos but then did an online Bootcamp (teamtreehouse.com). I did their full-stack JavaScript Tech Degree. I have 10 projects and a portfolio site to show what I can do. I am also working on an app for a dentist friend of mine but that is unfinished. A friend told me I should put that on my resume as experience but I am not sure if that would matter or come off as being dishonest. So far I have only been able to get an interview for an outsourcing company and they mentioned a low salary about 4 times during the interview.
Most companies will ask for my information but as soon as they notice I have 0 years of experience they aren’t interested anymore. I am a permanent resident so my visa is not an issue and I live about 100kms north of Tokyo so I could work in Tokyo if there was an opportunity.

I have read a lot about networking and going to meetups but I don’t know anyone in this industry and there are no meetups in my area. I have wanted to join meetups in Tokyo in the past but I work evenings and I would need to take a day off to get to Tokyo. I am hoping to find some online meetups, hopefully at a time when I am not working.

About two years ago before I started studying I sent an email to Paul asking about getting into this industry and he gave me some solid advice. I enjoy programming and want to start my programming career I just need someone to take a chance on me.
Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

I recently discovered (https://hntokyo.slack.com/) . You can talk here directly to developers in tokyo and they have a channel for a job board maybe you can find one there. The community is nice you can ask them anything. Hope this helps goodluck!!

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Wow this is awesome. Thank you so much for this! I really appreciate it. I just joined. I have to go to work but I will have more time tomorrow so introduce myself and check out the channels. Again thank you!

Glad i can help :smiley:

Hi, by the way how do you get an invitation to the slack channel? I also want to join but seems like you need to be invited

You can get an invite via https://hntokyo.io/

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