Easy... Create something public in the area that you're interested in your new career. This will show a level of expertise in it. That level could be a neophyt

Easy... Create something public in the area that you're interested in your new career. This will show a level of expertise in it. That level could be a neophyte or an expert, or anywhere in between. Even if you know nothing, the sheer effort of creating something means that YOU are a person that knows something about whatever it is you created. I remember when I did not know regex. Not a tiny bit! But I remember the day someone saw a PHP program I wrote to parse something and savaged me online and so the next day I learned regex. I've never forget that day I read that comment. But if I did not write that overly complex PHP 200+ LOC PHP code (that could be replaced with a short single line regex), and put it online, I would have never known what my problems were -- and would never become an expert at writing regexes. Making what you're doing online public -- that's the key. That act forces you to actually get better. It's one of the more powerful acts you can do in your life -- and that's what makes the internet so powerful these days. If you're not brave enough to do that, then continue doing what you're doing now. It's honest work and it pays the bills. Right?