Write code, ship products (especially open source), meet people (at user groups, conferences, et cetera) and be active in your local technical community. A fri

Write code, ship products (especially open source), meet people (at user groups, conferences, et cetera) and be active in your local technical community. A friend you meet at a conference doesn't have to be a senior person; if they would like to work with you, they will refer you to their company for hiring, which is the first foot in the door. A history of strong work, which luckily in our industry does not mean a history of employment, will open the door the rest of the way. Participating in user groups is also not to be underestimated; it's a chance to present projects you're working on, and to demonstrate your soft skills, which are (almost) as important as the technical side. I have been hired on the basis of each of those at one time or another, and I have hired people on a similar basis. BTW, this doesn't mean you shouldn't know CS topics (on top of practical programming), it just means you don't need to have a degree to acquire that knowledge.