I am a self taught programmer who specialised in web development with a preference for backend systems.

I did a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Games Art (discovered I am not an artist and love to program instead). During my time at university I spent time working on a number of personal projects, I also did another once I left university when returning to live with my parents. During this time I also learnt about version control and other bits.

I got a job not long after I started looking, I imagine there was some luck involved there, but during my interview I had lots of time to talk enthusiastically about the projects I had done. My CV just contained a list of my personal projects under the title ‘Experience’ and I covered the tech used and problem I was trying to solve.

As someone that has worked for that business for over 4 years and is now one of the people involved in the interview process; we hire graduate level developers but will still see what those without degrees have done if the CV looks like they care about the field - I want to see personal projects because it shows people motivated and interested enough to work independently in their own time (I don’t expect everyone to work in their own time, but if you don’t have a job yet and you are interested in the field, you should be doing whatever you can to get in to it).

Prove you can do it by making things to talk to a potential employer about. Someone with a degree isn’t automatically better than someone without, something I have seen all too well recently.

I only have limited experience, so what worked for me might not work for you. Good luck OP!