I did this. Start with getting some work, any work, with small / mom & pop type businesses, updating their website, fixing their printer, whatever they need. P

I did this. Start with getting some work, any work, with small / mom & pop type businesses, updating their website, fixing their printer, whatever they need. Possibly freelance, part-time, after hours, etc. The next job could be something like a full-time (maybe in the "I.T department") of a small, privately owned, local company of 50-100 people. After that, move up to a bigger company of maybe 1000+ people, multiple locations. After a few years there... you can now be taken seriously as a candidate for BigCo. It is true, companies do want an out of the box solution to hiring and are very risk averse, so a series of small steps, each one only a small stretch from the previous, is one way to get there.