how do programmers get started without a college background?

Question

Can anyone share how they have managed to get into the business without a degree? How long did it take to get an entry level job and how long did it take to get to the position where you are today?

Answer 1

Start by doing freelancing small gigs, for free if necessary, for small business/non-profits that might not otherwise be able to afford to pay you. Word will get around and it will eventually lead to more paying work (though not necessarily for the ones you were working for free for).

Use every project as an opportunity to improve your skills - everything is changing so fast all the time that even if you did go to school, you would still need to do this.

I am of the opinion that while college is a good idea, it is not necessarily required to be successful. If you wanted to walk into a fortune 500 corporate gig, you'd probably have a harder time w/out a degree, but once you have a roster of happy clients, nobody is going to care if/where/when you went to college.

Answer 2

So happy to answer this question. I went to school for electronic design, and dropped out.

Basically, in the course of two years, I self-taught myself HTML/CSS and AS3, while working on a front-end design portfolio. Eventually that position moved me up to CTO of the startup and lead developer.

Got hired into a project designing for a ruby on rails project, and started feverishly studying ruby on rails, and ruby and on the side, objective-c.

After two years, (and two years work experience), and a lot of pet projects I had started in Rails to show off a portfolio, and with a lot of great references in the industry, I made myself very very marketable. I'm not sure if the same trajectory could be replicated, but I'm making very good money now, and persuing bigger startups.

Long story short. Insane self-discipline is required.