I had a similar background--worked my way through school doing small to medium size freelance projects. Much of my freelance work was contracting for one compan

I had a similar background--worked my way through school doing small to medium size freelance projects. Much of my freelance work was contracting for one company (where I was mentored by one the senior developers) and few startups, so it wasn't quite as bad as what you experienced. Some employers think you're not "office material" if you happened to be a hard-working, independent worker that managed to pay their way through school while learning on the job. I assume I probably dodged a bullet working at any of those places, if that's the way they hire. After graduation, I had a few tell companies me that my work during school as sort of a "black mark" and I think it's sort of humorous looking back at it now. Currently, I'm the technical lead for my dev team and the contract work I did while in school is probably the best experience I had for the work I do now. Gave me a broad range of experience that reinforced the theory and concepts I was learning while in school.