As someone who has around 16 years of dev experience, whose background is originally illustration and graphic design, and then picked up PHP and JavaScript and

As someone who has around 16 years of dev experience, whose background is originally illustration and graphic design, and then picked up PHP and JavaScript and who has been working at a Java shop for the last 12 years, I can say that much of getting the job is a mix of two things. One is like the other comment pointed out, having personal endeavors that you can show off is huge for showing that you can build something and that language and degree are less relevant than creatively being able to solve problems. I had built a commercial CMS tailored for artists all in PHP, built my own theming framework, ORM as well as the payment process and all of the visual design for the system, themes and website. Mind you this was from 2004-2006, and had a lot to learn as I went. I say that not to brag, though I am proud of it, but it's a big part of how I got noticed at the company I'm with. It showed that I could handle multiple areas and solve a domain specific problem (this product formulated when Movable Type was the way to get a blog going, and visual artists, including me, didn't understand all the weird unixy stuff like the command line and the PATH, etc). So I'd recommend finding an itch you'd like to scratch and see if others have that itch as well and build something. Another upside is you are actually making your life easier in some way. The second factor that led me to joining this company (I still hate Java and .Net, though I understand their strengths), was because of the company culture itself. Not only had I technically shown that I had value, but they actually saw my background as a good way of avoiding a monoculture where innovation can't happen. The company was young and it was a risk (we were about 20 people then, now over 800), but it was one that I took mainly because the company's cultural and work values mirrored mine. If you're getting rejected because of your background and the type of degree, you may just not even wish to work there. I've had interns and hires come in with degrees ranging from math, electrical engineering, and biology to music and even intercultural outreach, and they became amazing software developers. Heck the original creator of normalize.css and svg4everybody was one of those with a very non traditional background. So also think of the place you'd like to work for. I'm not saying those companies are wrong per se, they gotta do what they need to, but personally, I value pragmatism, creativity, transparency and flexibility more than boxes that are just checked on a piece of paper.