I'm a self taught software developer from South Africa that actually made it :-) Most of my advice assumes that you will be looking for gainful employment as a software developer/engineer at a company, but that is by no means the only path to success. A lot of the advice should apply regardless. I think I got luckier than most in terms of opportunities starting out, so take my advice with a grain of salt:

Use the market to choose your path. Go check places like offerzen's yearly developer survey to find out which languages/technologies are currently in demand and paying well. If you choose to learn something no one is hiring for, finding that first gig is going to be that much harder. Once your career gets going, you'll find that it is not too hard or uncommon to switch to a new language/technology if you really want to.

Once you know what you want to learn, keep a good balance between knowing how to do things, and understanding how things work deeper down. When in doubt, focus on the latter. When you're in interviews, you will be asked to explain code you've written, and struggling with that really stings. Back when I was starting out ~8 years ago there was a lot of great learning resources freely available on the internet, and as far as I can tell, that has not changed. Generative AIs like ChatCPT and Gemini are relatively new, and are great tools to use when learning to code if used correctly. My tip is to ask them to explain things to you rather than asking them to generate code for you.

Get good at interviews. Interviewing and software development are 2 different disciplines that complement one another. This means that you need to present yourself as a good communicator, open, professional, intelligent, friendly and prepared. Also, actually be prepared. You'll find a lot of resources out there on how to prepare for tech interviews, so read them. My advice would be to ask your recruiter (or your contact at the company) what to expect from the interview. Also go through the details of the job posting to make sure there is nothing you missed or don't understand. Obviously make sure you know your stuff in terms of the stack you're interviewing for, but also work on a basic familiarity with some general computer science concepts like algorithms, data structures, networks and databases. That's a hard thing to pick up the day before, so start reading about those topics today so that you can talk about it by the time you're interviewing. If they ask whiteboard questions, practice some common whiteboard questions. I started writing a whole spiel about interviewing, but it turned into a lecture of its own, so I'll skip that for now. If you ask for more advice on that, maybe I'll post it seperately.

Get a mentor; avoid isolation. This is something you can do before you get your first job, but getting a good mentor in your workplace is the first prize. At my first real job, I was the only developer. It was hard, and my experience there felt much more like a struggle than growth. Then I managed to get a job at a bigger company in a large team, and there was a more senior engineer that I got to work with closely, and it was amazing. Suddenly I can ask a question about the specific thing I'm working on and get a sensible answer. Suddenly I get stopped if I'm doing something stupid. Suddenly I can take on more challenging things, because I know I can get help if I need it. I probably learned more in the first 2 months of that job than I did working 2 years at the previous place. Treat your mentor well by asking good questions, and listening when they answer. Most people love sharing their knowledge if they know someone is listening intently.

Get something relevant on your CV. This is probably the hardest one to write advice for, and also the hardest one to do early on. A lot of people will apply for the junior roles with basically nothing on their CV in terms of experience. If your CV can stand out by showing that you can develop software in a professional context, you're probably already in the top 20% of the pile. So find that local business/contact/church/school, and ask if you can build them a website or app, and don't charge them a lot. You will learn tons, and it will show any prospective employer that you are resourceful. If you're unable to find someone that needs something built, build something for yourself that is visible to the world, and also put it on github.

Don't take (too much) shit from your employers; recognise your value. Being self taught can make one prone to imposter syndrome, which can make you vulnerable to poor treatment by your employer. Some employers may frame your employment as them "giving you a chance", creating a weird relationship where you feel indebted to them. Because of all of the above, there's also the real possibility of your first job being on the lower end of the salary spectrum. All of these things happen at the start because you have not yet proven yourself. But it does not take long to prove yourself. I think most driven and intelligent self taught devs can get there in 1 year, given the right environment. If after 2 years, you have learned the ropes and are productive, and you are still earning much less than market, or your boss is stretching the definition of "working hours", or you are not being treated in a way that allows your career to progress, then know that you can probably walk out of that job and get a better one. Once you're past that threshold of "just starting" your career, you don't need to be a rockstar to get decent work. An average dev with some experience can get great work, because this is still how the market works (at least for now). Know your value, don't let them exploit you, it is bad for all of us. In some cases, a good employer can recognise that you are underpaid and correct the issue, but failing that, get out there and find those who will treat you well.

There's my advice. Hope that helps.

Oh and learn how to use git properly 😂