[mzzter]

This answer resonates with me a lot. I was in a what I consider to be a similar situation as the OP three years ago. Graduated with a fine arts degree, made a switch in developing software skills, took a few quarters of community college classes. Had over 200 side projects when I started applying around in 2017. I did a year at a part-time internship for almost no pay. In 2018, I started applying again with much more responses, and I finally landed a full-time software engineering role with my current company. Been really enjoying working here.

Open to chatting, email me at "~ (at) mtso (dot) io".