I took the Intro to Programming and Web Development MOOCs at Udacity back when they first launched. Combined with the knowledge I learned from the free books "H

I took the Intro to Programming and Web Development MOOCs at Udacity back when they first launched. Combined with the knowledge I learned from the free books "How to Design Programs" and "Learn Python the Hard Way," I was successfully able to gain employment as a developer (previously I was a Windows sysadmin with no real knowledge of programming). However, I didn't show off any MOOC certificates or anything like that. I think what mattered was that I had a combination of a real world project (Django site for a paying client) and a diversity of other "non-school" projects. Even though those projects were mostly exploratory, they demonstrated that I actually enjoyed programming and was capable of learning a variety of things, which was important to my employer. I tried to present myself in terms of a portfolio, and not my MOOC education / lack of a CS degree. Without those courses and materials, though, I really don't think I could have become a programmer.