I would say a combination of luck and your own projects. You have to make up for your lack of industry experience with your own personal projects and show that

I would say a combination of luck and your own projects. You have to make up for your lack of industry experience with your own personal projects and show that you have the skills or the initiative to pick up new things quickly. My short story: I graduated college w/ a degree in EE and after working for a defense company for about a year, realized I hated it. Web dev/design was my hobby and I had hacked together a lot of random projects, but never had any "official industry experience". On my resume I had listed a lot of side projects I had. I applied to a few places and a few called me in for an interview and also a short test of what I knew. This is where you will get a chance to try and prove yourself. I was nervous as heck, but thankfully, they gave me a chance and the rest was history. I don't think I would have been given the chance had I not been doing those things on the side. The other nice side effect was that because I actively worked on projects, I actually knew what I was doing and for some reason that surprised a lot of employers(?). I think the one thing I took away from that was that if you're passionate about learning and improving, you'll be better off than the majority of people just there looking for a job. "3+ years" exp. or whatever had a different meaning for me after that.