Consider looking for opportunities adjacent to your current career. I don’t know what career you are coming from, but you have a ton of industry and domain know

Consider looking for opportunities adjacent to your current career. I don’t know what career you are coming from, but you have a ton of industry and domain knowledge that will be valuable in writing software for that industry. Try to automate things in your current job. Define the business impact. Tell me in a resume “I reduced 1200 person hours a year of manual input by automating our business process” my ears park up. Consider grabbing some credentials. Depending on where you are coming from in prior academic experience, you might be able to finish a BS in CS at something like WGU in a year. You can also look for “bridge” programs from schools with a higher pedigree, which have the advantage of better career services and alumni networks (although understand you won’t get the full services or connections without a “real” degree). While you will definitely learn some useful things pursuing these credentials, they are even more important for you as a signal of intent and seriousness. I’m less fan of open source contribution as a way of bridging careers. If there is something you want to contribute to by all means do so, but I find the barrier to meaningful contribution to be high enough that for Junior devs you are better off spending your time in something more structured like education or small work automation projects. That being said, do create a great personal website. It can be a well written blog, a beautiful version of your resume, a showcase of projects, a charitable cause (although perhaps not for hot button issues), or anything and all the above. Just make it pretty, performant, and polished. It is a standout when I look at people. As others have said, do personal networking. Show up to meetups and local events. Even if you don’t make a career connection (and you might), you’ll learn the lingo and things concerning working programmers.