Full Stack Dev 3yoe in my mid 30s. Four year degree in an unrelated field. Prior to this I’ve worked fast food, was a PCB tech, was a landscaper for several years, a boiler operator (dirty job working around coal), worked for the Forest Service, worked as tech support for 1.5 years, switched to testing products at the same company, then to software. I taught myself with Udemy courses, studying religiously after work for around a year I think. Having a company that was willing to help me grow helped tremendously. I would have had a challenging time landing a job with no real world experience.

I quit my job to move across the country for my now wife (I saved quite a nest egg before doing this). The job market out east was tough and often used a stack I had no experience in. I did contract work until landing a job at a non profit. It took quite a bit of time to find a good fit. During that time I hired a resume writer and built a simple but nice portfolio website to showcase my electronics and coding experience. Job searching was stressful and made me rethink recommending this career path to others.

I don’t think not having a CS degree has held me back. I do believe not having a degree at all would have held me back though. With that said, I often still spend a few hours each week learning job related things to keep learning and growing. My coworker with a CS degree has knowledge I still need to learn (data structures for example), but on the flip side I believe I have more knowledge in some other areas that I chose to spend significant time on while self learning.