It really fucking sucks that being a programmer implies you got to devote all your time to doing programming stuff, otherwise the people who genuinely don't have anything else besides programming look at you like you aren't even even trying to take it seriously
honestly? you really don't.
yes, you need some level of internship or personal/college projects, but that's at the same level of an artist having a portfolio.
you don't need to be constantly doing stuff on your own time, you just need to keep an ear out for developments in the industry, and maybe read up a bit on new techniques in your specialisation.
i'm a machine learning engineer at one of the larger companies in Japan, and my free time is mostly spent on my hobbies. getting in wasn't easy, but because i had internships from my time in college and projects from my college courses, it backed up my skills.
but that's what it took for one of the most competitive positions rn, in a competitive space, in a desirable company.
if you want to do web development, just having one or two websites you've made as a showcase is enough.
learning web dev will take some time, sure, but making such a website is something you can do in a week, if you give a few hours every day. that's from scratch, mind you. ideally you'd make them while learning. once you have the skills, you'd at most need to brush up on new frameworks as they become popular, and only if your company asks you to.
the number one thing i've seen in folks who say they want to learn programming is that they just don't follow through. that's not to say there aren't possible reasons for that, sure, there may be many valid reasons.
but so many times they say they're interested, i offer to help them out, point them to resources, tell them i'm there if they have doubts, and then they just don't try.
the guy in the manga literally just need to look up a video on youtube, and follow it to start. if he'd done even some basics, then the agency could have some base to start. it's like saying you want to build a house, and you haven't even thought about what kind of house, or where, and going to a labour company and wanting to hire them.