Spring Boot

Picking Java as a primary language is a good choice for a beginner. If you have got good hold of Core Java concepts then it is good to understand java based frameworks. And you are on the right track by choosing Spring boot. But before that I'd encourage you to understand Spring Core first and then put your hands on Spring Boot. Spring Boot is kind of used widely in building APIs in Microservices architecture. And Microservices are a boom these days.

As you mentioned if you're a back end inclined individual, then sticking to java and spring frameworks will be good. As a secondary language, Python is a good choice. It is widely used in AI/ML based projects and also easy to pick up.

Do sample mini assignments by looking at real world problems and solving them using Java & Spring Boot. The more you do these assignments, the better you get with it. Have them checked in github. If you don't have an account create one and start pushing your code.

as a django developer I would say , if you want to choose django, think a couple more times, because its giant framework and totally stands out from rest of the backends(not in python..all backends). It has some magical benefits but it takes or I will say it demands time . So if you have patience to mine then its best for you

A year and a half ago I decided to change my career from BI developer to Backend dev and I choose Java + Spring. Now a days I worked with Quarkus, but a prefer Spring because in internet you find lot of content to study both.

As a Laravel developer, I'd have to say go with Laravel. Although you can move away from PHP, it means any of that legacy code will still need to be completely ported to Java or whatever other language you use. Whereas, staying with PHP, you may find it easier to re-use/adapt that existing code.

Of course, if you're going for a full rewrite, then that might not be a useful consideration. However, even a full rewrite will introduce a lot of changes. When having to do this kind of thing, I recommend changing as few things as possible at once. So staying in the same language while upgrading may keep some pain points down.

Vue.js with PHP/Laravel (vue.js is much better than Angular for building the frontend. I feel much cleaner and faster). you already using MySQL database PHP is prefered.

Job search can be hard and pretty daunting.

However, I recommend you sticking with whatever you have the most experience with. MERN stack and Spring Boot jobs are actually very high in demand in service based companies, a lot of which can allow you to work remotely if their specific clients work at hours that don't match with yours.

I recommend going over on LinkedIn itself and search for Associate/Junior dev positions with Java or JavaScript filters rather than specific Nodejs or Spring Boot filters. Freshers aren't generally expected to know web frameworks right after graduation, and undergo mandatory training anyways, even for vastly differing domains (you could undergo training for Go even though you mentioned skill in Java, as a fresher).

However, freshers are expected to know atleast 1 object oriented language, in which they can demonstrate fundaments of OOP, basic logic building, and working with Strings. It starts with senior roles in software industry where people are generally asked about what "stack" they previously worked on, which influences decision making for hiring people.

As a fresher, you are expected to know nothing. So start filtering and applying that you know nothing and want to learn everything, while job searching. Good Luck!

You should really try NodeJS with ExpressJS

I would recommend sticking to what you have already spent your time on.

You are in your final year, you spent a great deal of time and effort on Java. The Java has a larger marketplace in your area according to you. So, it would be logical for you to go with it unless you have lost your interest.

I would also like to give the same advice, stick to your current stack. You would start learning other stacks gradully. Don't shift yourself right now.

I don't think it matters

front-end : React is really cool and I enjoy it but you can build a website with Angular and Vue, or even Svelte (I've never tried it), but these are all options.

back-end : Spring Boot Because the framework is so powerful, you could do this with NodeJS, which would be easier than Spring Boot, but you'd have to figure out your syntax preferences and ask other people if your stack is viable.

Django can be used, but Spring Boot is far more powerful in terms of scalability and security.

if no back-end needed : you can use NextJS to fetch your API calls and create a lightweight website.

I mean, your question is difficult to answer because we don't know the architecture you imagine for this project. you need to think about all the components you'll create end-to-end and write it down in a paper without considering the stack you'll use, and then you can ask again with more precision.

Based on your description, I would choose a tech stack that is most comfortable and easiest to iterate with and worry later about scaling issues. Spring can take a beating when we are speaking in terms of enterprise workload, but for the verbosity of Java and the concepts you will have to go in I don't see what you will be getting in return, especially in your use case. I wouldn't choose React in your case either, I see react more suitable if you have time and capacity for experimentation, where you will use hooks at first then abandon them for a sensible state management and caching solution then have to research hundreds of solutions which all have pros and cons, I don't think this is the best use of one's time. I could suggest Angular and Nestjs, where you use serverless to handle scaling. However, I think even better would be using something you are already familiar with. Django is just fine and with tailwind, daisyUI, and some jQuery you will do a good enough job for a first release. I wouldn't make it my main concern for this to be highly interactive on the first iteration. On the other hand, if you wanna splurge, I say checkout astrojs, it takes very little to learn and get good at it, while at the sametime creating a foundation where you can later add interactivity piece by piece using their implementation of micro frontends (island architecture).

Given Angular is written in TypeScript, C# will feel more familiar to you. Other reasons to choose ASP.NET are that it's one of the fastest frameworks out there for any language, has a lower learning curve compared to Spring Boot, allows you to quickly build JSON Web APIs and uses less memory. Another notable option if you have a lot of TypeScript code you wish to reuse is Nest framework, which is a TypeScript framework that uses the same architecture as Angular but for back end APIs. I would still choose ASP.NET over Nest but it depends on what will give you more benefits.

Given you have cross platform experience (dart, angular) I would recommend spring boot. It is a powerful platform, allows you to easily integrate with many standard tools: databases, message queues, … And you have the freedom to deploy your applications on every platform that has Java or containers available - so virtually everywhere.