I don't have a graduate degree, few do in your typical software company that's not a household name. However, employers are very interested in personal projects

I don't have a graduate degree, few do in your typical software company that's not a household name. However, employers are very interested in personal projects and want to know what you gained from building them. Professional experience trumps personal projects I would say, but something is better than nothing. Were my personal projects worth it? Yes, without them I probably wouldn't be employed. But it's easy to get lost in them, when sometimes you should move on. The better strategy is to take a job where you know you can introduce programming into your assignments, even if your job isn't a developer position.