This is exactly the advice I'd give. Get your GED, but you don't need a college degree to be successful. Find a junior-level (ie, "shit work that nobody else wa

This is exactly the advice I'd give. Get your GED, but you don't need a college degree to be successful. Find a junior-level (ie, "shit work that nobody else wants to do") job on the strength of your experience, not your educational credentials. It won't be amazing money, but it will be great experience, which is the currency most companies actually care about. From there, you'll build experience that you can spin into a career. Don't stop self-educating. Research and consume good career-related literature. Push yourself to learn new things (something I learned from a former boss - I learn a new programming language every year. It keeps me exposed to new ideas constantly), and don't stagnate. Work on open source - a good Github profile is the strongest indicator of a good candidate from my perspective.