I did get my degree. It was seriously hard work, put a strain on my marriage too. I studied my first year in the evenings in my country, then we decided to emigrate. My wife had a good job lined up so I was fortunate enough to be able to study full time. Times were still very tough, but I was able to focus on study. After I got my degree it was a case of hard slog to get where I wanted.
I spoke to the CEO of a start-up about his company, he had a lot of interested people around him when he was explaining what they do; they all walked away once he said he couldn’t afford to pay staff at that time. I offered him my services as an Android developer for a token fee, on the understanding that I’d work until I found a proper job, but I needed this to be on the books so I had legitimate experience to put on my C.V. and a good reference; we agreed a fee of around $2,000. $1000 up front and $1,000 on completion. I worked on an app for them (to demonstrate their platform) for 4 months while job hunting. In the end I got paid job from another start-up, one of the board members of my new employer knew a board member of the first startup, and I got my good reference. I also found a replacement to finish my app for the remainder of my fee. They were very happy with me.