One thing to try might be to put together a portfolio of some kind. This way you can show people that, yes, I can do X, Y and Z and here's the proof. Good rec

One thing to try might be to put together a portfolio of some kind. This way you can show people that, yes, I can do X, Y and Z and here's the proof. Good recommendations certainly don't hurt either. I'm going to take a guess that just straight resume submitting isn't going to go so well. You'll likely get filtered out on the lack of college degree. This means you'll have to actively and creatively pursue getting in touch with a real life person to at least start the conversation on why you should be considered. I kind of waffle on the more education part of the question. It really depends on where you would go to school. If you can get into a really good program, then it's well worth it as you'll learn a lot from the profs but even more from your fellow students. If you end up in a mediocre program, you'll probably end up frustrated like you did before. I wish I could give you some magical advice on how to determine a good vs. bad program, but I have no idea. (For myself, Ohio State was OK, I didn't put in enough work to get the most out of it. Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering was fantastic. I felt like the dumbest person in the room many times and that's great for learning.)