[idkidkidkidk]

I worked in sales after a some-what useless liberal arts degree, transitioned into software-engineering/programming after 3-4 years of making cold calls :)

I would consider someone with no "professional" experience/no degree. You say no "professional experience", a transitioning developer can still build projects to display technical skills/knowledge/make stuff to be used by someone, contribute to open source projects, and volunteer time for non-profits/build stuff to display skills. I've had employers say they looked at my github, saw some really simple open source commits I made and that made them bring me in (this happened at a big bank and a big insurance company - led to job offers).

I was interviewing a dev this week for a job with an undergrad and a MS from good universities, she didnt have any github/projects/code to share with me, and struggled through easy algorithm questions.

So... I get that they went to great schools... I see that she has great professional experience... But i would rather interview with a dev that can share some of their code projects with me, and as long as you have basic algorithm skills id rather hire you than the person i interviewed yesterday.

[idkidkidkidk]

I would add getting the first professional job, the challenge is getting through the recruiter, as many recruiters have to bat candidates away from open job positions after they are given strict "must have requirements" from engineering managers/directors.

So you should expect some frustrating conversations with recruiters, but most of the actual engineering people dont really care about what you did before you walked in the door as long as you satisfy their knowledge/skills requirements.

[profile53]

Those are really great tips, thanks! GitHub acts sort of like a portfolio I suppose.