[effingwewt]

As others have said contracting is the way to go. If this were any other trade/craft I'd say open your own business or firm (the software version of which is contracting).

Companies contract smaller companies without even due diligence quite often, unfortunately. At least in your case it could be used for something constructive.

Change last name, get DBA, grab as many small projects as you can to build an active portfolio of happy clients.

All the best.