[jonfw]

I was a self taught programmer who at one point dropped out of college to try and get into the industry earlier. I spent about a year sending out applications and got absolutely zero response.

I go back to school for the remaining 2 years, and when I graduated I had 5 competing offers with salaries starting at double what I would have accepted when I had not finished school. This huge reversal in outcomes was purely the college degree as far as I can tell- I had less time to send out applications, no internships, and no new personal projects of any substance.

My experience is that there are too many college grads and boot campers with github profiles to get into the industry off of some basic home tinkering.

If you're going to do it, I imagine you've got to go one step up and stand out.