[cosmicRobot]

I feel a little scared to even answer this question because I’m a “self-taught” dev in a Junior Analyst role at a small cap firm. Sometimes I feel like I’m still waiting for the other foot to drop.

Realistically, I think a lot of development outside of the really slick software stuff is happening in industries that require some other knowledge base outside of development. I went to school for an unrelated field, I learned some computational stats as part of my program but that’s about it. Everything else I learned in my down time. I eventually found a team at my company (I started in an unrelated role) to bring me on as a junior and since then it has been full-steam ahead, learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible, on the job.

My advice would be to find a field that you are interested in and try to find dev needs there. For me, it was data analysis/data science. I’m fortunate that my formal education lends itself to those fields. Were I try to my luck somewhere else I’m not sure how it would go.

Other than that, build a portfolio. Start your own website and start filling it with content (personal projects to show off your skills). Find a way to prove to potential employers that you know your stuff.