Really if you can write code that works, I'm not sure why you are having issues finding work. I can understand if you can't find enough to fill up your 40 hour

Really if you can write code that works, I'm not sure why you are having issues finding work. I can understand if you can't find enough to fill up your 40 hour week at the beginning but you should not have so much difficulty finding contract work. One hack to get around the experience problem is to charge a lower hourly rate and be more compromising about payment terms. Instead of requesting 50% upfront ask for a smaller amount and remainder at project completion. Having said that, if you sense the client will have trouble paying you tread carefully. I'm sure there is a whole philosophy that lowering your hourly rate is precisely what you should not do. There is a time and place when you should follow that. But suffice to day that if you are just looking to get the ball rolling and earn some cash programming, there are enough price sensitive clients. I would also follow themadvice of working on open source projects. That way within a few months at most you should be able to say you have decen experience developing your average web app. I'm a recent graduate making a half decent income doing contract work. But I've been freelancing since high school as a dev. On the otherhand, I have no formal degree in CS. You have a better shot at getting a job at google than me.