[patrickgordon]

hey OP I had a similar situation to you, except I was still working while making the transition.

Background - IT degree comprised mainly of electives from a Law dual which I ended up dropping. Worked as a business analyst for 4 years and before that in IT support. All at the same pseudo-govt body.

Over the last 1-2 years working there, I spent my days at work just surviving. Enough to get by. The nights & weekends were spent building product(s) that I tried and failed to launch as startups. I had pretty much no programming exp. but grinded through it. Started with Ruby on Rails, rebuilt the same app about 3 times. Then moved to React front-end and Rails backend. Built that one twice.

Eventually worked up the courage to start applying. Made sure my resume/interviewing focused on two things: 1. my experience working in a team environment and solving problems (i.e. my BA work); and 2. my experience building web applications as seen by examples that were deployed. In answering most tech Q's I referred to things I had done to get my web app to work which were similar.

I now work as a front-end (React) dev in an awesome company getting paid well and building interesting things. I've been there for almost a year now.

You may need to grind and it will be frustrating but you can do it. Good luck.