When I was young and I had no degree and almost no experience, I made a few web projects and put them together in a portfolio. I showed the beginning-to-end met

When I was young and I had no degree and almost no experience, I made a few web projects and put them together in a portfolio. I showed the beginning-to-end methods I used (pencil sketches and all) to complete the projects on my own. It took a few months but I landed a job with a small company (they cited the portfolio as the main reason they got me in to interview) and have been employed ever since. Later as a manager who was hiring, the biggest problem I had with hiring juniors was I couldn't easily tell one between another, and even with a degree from a decent University, I was unable to figure out if a) they could solve problems or b) if they could even code at all (surprisingly, many graduates cannot, and I don't have time or inclination to train them). On the other side of the fence, candidates that put effort into portfolios like the one I described, even for a single project, made it very easy to decide if they were a worthwhile bet because they had already answered my questions with their portfolio piece: that they can solve a problem and that they can actually code. Even interview phases, I've had seniors whom have aced the interviews and turned out completely rubbish. If only I was able to determine their aptitude from a real project before I've even called them... Another angle is to find a company that need something built but are not a 'tech company'. Often these, assuming you can pull of the work they need, are less about the 'passing the tech interview' and more 'solving the problems' the small business is having. I started out doing this also (I worked in ad agencies making bespoke things as their only programmer). There are avenues outside of 'tech companies' if you can do the work, if you love making stuff, don't give up on it yet!