How do I get back into programming?
My dad is a programmer, and he encouraged me to learn basic coding: I grew up surrounded by computers, playing video games - long story short, I spent a lot of time in my teen years messing around with computers, Linux, designing websites, learning to code in JS, Python, C++. I guess the most advanced project I ever completed was an aim-bot for Counter-Strike.
I thought I knew what I wanted to do entering university - pursuing an academic path - and I just didn't have time to program as a hobby anymore. Then in college I worked part-time in an unrelated field and I've taken a gap year to explore working in that field. I'm leaning away from that now, and I guess I'm reverting back to something I was once passionate about and could honestly see myself doing for eight hours a day at work.
Not having touched programming at all besides basic personal website-making since I was about seventeen, and at the time never being invested in any particular technology for job-seeking reasons anyway, I find learning programming all over again intimidating. But I know I'm intelligent enough to do it, I _enjoy_ it - I just don't really know where to start, or if I can genuinely self-teach myself to the point of getting hired without some kind of software diploma.
My areas of interests are fairly niche/disparate - I really enjoyed the low-level programming in the video-game hacking stuff, and I love the idea of (audio) DSP engineering. But I don't know if there are many junior roles available in those fields. I also love design _tout court_, and web and app design seems like a nice way to get into that space, but it seems like such an enormous task to learn all the different frameworks, and knowing which ones are most up-to-date and trendy in the job market.
I guess I'm asking how should I approach getting a job as a junior developer, as a graduate from a non-coding degree, with a year or so to get back into this kind of stuff? What are the technologies to get into for safe junior dev jobs? Should I just make some kind of portfolio?
Thank you guys!