To me, this is very different than someone who has graduated with a CS degree or self-taught with a portfolio of open source contributions/personal projects. A

To me, this is very different than someone who has graduated with a CS degree or self-taught with a portfolio of open source contributions/personal projects. An understanding of basic concepts obtained in the ways described above is very different from 0 experience. And on paper to a recruiter, what I've listed above counts as 0 real-world business experience. edit: it is nice to hear this situation worked out for you though!