Without going into too much detail, my life kinda screwed up in my late teens (mostly by me), and I had few qualifications and wasn't really going anywhere. I

Without going into too much detail, my life kinda screwed up in my late teens (mostly by me), and I had few qualifications and wasn't really going anywhere. I didn't have any degree and after a miserable period on the dole started work at a data entry place. I'd been interested in programming since my first ZX81, and started finding things I could do to optimise the data entry process. Naturally, the company loved this and I got promoted. I used that as a portfolio for my next, slightly more developer-like job, and then wrote their website and e-survey stuff for them and used that as a portfolio for the next job and so on. I had a very clear plan - work for a proper software dev company one day. 11 years later and I'm the best paid dev in the building, working for a large multi-national, with a fancy title and everything. And have been for a few years now. You don't need to have a degree to prove you can do something, you just need to do it. Even with a degree it's all about drive and determination. So - if you want to get into programming then write plenty of your own stuff, or get into lots of Open Source, then get a list of firms in your area and ring them to try to get them to look at what you've done. When I interview people these days, that's what I'm looking for - enthusiasm about their craft, not necessarily their credentials. We've hired some people with top class degrees who unfortunately think the learning stops there. Think of a degree just as a short cut to an interview, if you happen to already have the degree. Oh - but stay away from big firms, you'll never get past a Human Resources department with enthusiasm alone. The irony is that I'm now getting sick of being employed to write endless enterprise drivel, and now my ambitions are to do with starting out for myself. Hence reading lots of HN.