Very very very strange. CS is exploding and everyone is hiring. Where are you based? Can you be more specific on what you would like to do? We are hiring - interns/junior too :)
It would be better to say "many are hiring" in place of everyone.
I'm a Computer Science myself with professional experience in IT since 2004 and I'm unemployed for 2 years now and I cannot get passed a decent interview without being labeled as "overqualified".
Right now I'm in the process to change path for good and become Security Guard because I have no other choice.
Technology works for countries like US, China, and such big industries, but not for tiny islands like my country I'm afraid.
My suggestion to original OP would be to find any job for now to make a living if he or she has no other financial support from family and work on his / her side projects until they gain momentum they deserve.
Many companies that I personally know they are outsourcing their services to various countries that offer cheap labor and use the local tech companies to take advantage the system (legal wise, low taxation, etc), while using the local staff to fix the broken pieces without giving people the chance to learn anything, unless they have the knowledge of NASA's nuclear scientists and have a couple of decades of professional experience from various companies like Google, Microsoft, and big Silicon Valley names.
So, to answer your question: not worth it I'm afraid.
I used to look for entry programming positions, because I was IT Network Engineer, Assistant Systems Administrator, and Technical Support Officer my entire career with a 2 year exception as Web Developer with SEO/SMM responsibilities.
I have a broad experience with languages such as C, C++, Python, PHP, JavaScript, and such, but always on a personal level, apart from LAMP stack that I used it for 2 years professionally.
Right now I'm not looking for programming jobs anymore, because I have stopped believing in people from tech point of view after all this traumatic experience and decided to move on.
It just not worth it, it's not fun anymore at least for me.
Considering the average level of engineering in the Western world, if you are as good as you're implying you'll have no trouble securing a remote job with a million companies in the Valley. If this feels like a fairly trivial/standard problem: http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/remove-nodes-root-leaf-paths-le..., you'd be well above a lot of engineers.
I know many scientists that suffer the same way as I am.
No matter how good you are with education and research, when you are an introvert and you have to go for an interview but cannot express yourself clearly under stressful circumstances, like the case of being interviewed by CTO, CFO (don't ask me why, he was present with a special interest in knowing me in person for some reason?!), and the head of HR at the same time...then you can get an idea why I cannot make it anymore.
It wasn't like that before. In the past, you had the opportunity to go for an interview and you would have a normal chat with the HR or the Project Manager that would make you feel like talking to a closed friend of yours and you would exchange valuable information with this person and before you know it, through this interview you would realize how much you know and help you appreciate yourself even more.
Nowadays it feels like going through a drive-thru to buy junk food that feels so emotionless...they don't care about you, because they say "I can find millions like you" and they literally mean it!
Think about it, we are in EU and they announce they have opened some interesting positions with attractive salaries and benefits, and without noticing it many EU citizens sent their resumes for that position.
So, you stand no chance next to those people who have already acquired professional experience around this niche.
I'm a Computer Science myself with professional experience in IT since 2004 and I'm unemployed for 2 years now and I cannot get passed a decent interview without being labeled as "overqualified".
Right now I'm in the process to change path for good and become Security Guard because I have no other choice.
Technology works for countries like US, China, and such big industries, but not for tiny islands like my country I'm afraid.
My suggestion to original OP would be to find any job for now to make a living if he or she has no other financial support from family and work on his / her side projects until they gain momentum they deserve.