Hello all, I just graduated high school and my son was born a few weeks ago. I constantly program as a hobby in my spare time when I'm not working at this fast food joint that pays min. wage. And as you can probably imagine working min. wage and trying to afford to raise your child and support your family doesn't work out too well. We're not struggling or anything like that as of now, but it's time for me to move up in life.

I genuinely love programming, and I also genuinely hate school(Mainly the General Education classes; english, history, etc. I love math, though.). I've contemplated college, online colleges, tech. schools, etc, but I feel like I won't be able to pass the Gen. Ed. classes, so I'm not too sure about those yet. What I really want is a programming job. I don't care what it is. I just want to code something. Embedded systems, servers, games, anything(preferrable games ;)).

Now here is my major issue: I would like to consider myself a decent programmer, but I tend to favor C++ over anything else and I believe that will become a problem. I wouldn't even have a clue how to create the stuff I can using C++ in another language. I've just devoted all my time to understanding and learning it. I can create the simplest of applications in Java, C#, Visual Basic, etc, and that is pretty much it.

My question is now, how can I get a job w/o a degree and w/o knowing in depth many of the languages that are in demand right now? I've searched around everyone wants web developers from what I see on craigslist in my area. I also don't live in a big city so I don't believe there will be many programming opportunities around.

My question is now, how can I get a job w/o a degree and w/o knowing in depth many of the languages that are in demand right now?

The lack of a degree will make it much harder then the lacking knowledge of other languages.

I would sugguest to learn java, a language very often used in standard business applications and very similiar to C++, this will broaden the attractivity for lot of companies seeking coders. On the other hand you should continue your education, once out of school, the general education is often exchanged by really specialized education. If going to university is an option, I would recommend to target a degree.

Living in germany, we have the option to do an apprenticeship in "programming/coding" related profession. I don't know if there's something similar where you live (US I guess).

If this is no option either, you can try to get some certifications, e.g. the orcale java certifications.This can help you to get a job too.

An other option is to show off, that you are really good a coding. I had a workmate who never got a formal coding education, but wrote an emulator for an older console in his spare time, showing off his skills. For him it was the door opener.

Good luck.

Good luck.

If you live somewhere where there's not too many "interesting" software jobs available (like embedded development or whatnot), then look for an entry-level programming job aimed at new graduates (usually they target university/college graduates but if you have good C++ skills you should pass the interview okay). These jobs tend to have you focus more on software support tasks which will give you the opportunity to dabble in a bunch of different technologies; they don't expect you to know frameworks or even all the languages, just that you know how to program at least, can solve problems, can pick up stuff quickly and can interact with people, etc...

After a year or two, or when you've had enough, you can use that work experience to get to the more interesting jobs like embedded development, that are usually (but not always) not available to people with no work experience, or you might have found something you find even more interesting... it'll also give you time to think about whether it's worth moving to an area with richer programming job opportunities, and perhaps get you networked a little. It's kinda like college, except you get paid to learn stuff instead. It won't always be interesting work, but you'll be busy and the experience gained will lead you to your next, hopefully better job.

Long-term advice: learn as many programming languages as you possibly can and desire. The tech industry is crowded with people with passion in the field, and they tend to carry multiple languages under their belt that they have accumulated over many years. You are competing with them.

Short-term advice: Specialize. Focus on one thing, and do a darn good job at it. Specialize at making websites. Specialize at WebGL/graphics. Specialize at making games. Specialize at database administration. Specialize at Java, or Ruby, or Python. The industry moves fast, like, ridiculously fast. You can't keep up with everything.

It is going to be difficult for you to find a programming job without a degree. Also C++ jobs are very thin on the ground compared with Java, PHP, Javascript, RoR etc..

Being a professional programmer involves life long learning and you have to be ready to switch languages and create something in a new language at the drop of a hat.

My question is now, how can I get a job w/o a degree and w/o knowing in depth many of the languages that are in demand right now?

The short answer is "You can't".

To be honest it might be easier for you to go self employed rather than trying to find a job. If you could create a couple of mobile apps and a website showcasing them then there is no reason you wouldn't be able to get plenty of contract work (and not even need to leave the house). If you are good at it then you'd probably find that you can earn more doing this than working for the man anyway.

In the United States, you will NOT be able to get a "programming" job without a degree from collage -UNLESS- you have completed (successful) projects to show.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I haven't really ever entertained being self employed, but I believe that could be a viable solution. And like I said it's not that I don't want to further my education and get a degree, because I'd love to have a CS degree hanging on my wall. It's just not the best option right now. If anything I could maybe go to school part time. But again thank you guys for the much appreciated insight!

Yeah, go to your local meetups. It's the best way to find people in the software development industry and figure out what they're looking for and what gaps you may have in your knowledge base. You'll also want to expand the breadth of your programming abilities by picking up a few other languages. Sure, you don't know C# or Java, but you do know C++ and you know how to "program" which is thinking about how to create instructions for a computer to process. Programming itself should become somewhat language agnostic, and when you have to work in another language, you're asking "how do I do X in language Y?". That's an answer just a few google queries away.

The CS degree would certainly help you a lot. Don't get discouraged for not having it, let your passion for coding be what keeps you going. The degree should be more of a scrap of paper which validates that you know what you already know, but doesn't mean you can stop learning, because in the tech sector, learning new things is a constant ;)

If I were in your shoes, I'd work on getting a somewhat complicated software application finished and polished in my spare time. This would be something you can use as a portfolio item to validate that you know what the hell your doing and that you can take a software application from conception to completion and it solves a real customer problem and other people are finding value in it, and you've iterated on improving it in some ways to make it better for your end users. If you can show beautiful code and a well designed app, you're WAY ahead of a CS graduate, and an employer would be silly not to see that and give you a shot.

Second part makes no sense.

.

Who would you hire - realistically .

A: person with a college degree and without significant coding projects to show.

B: person with a college degree and with significant coding projects to show.

C: person without a college degree and without significant coding projects to show.

D: person without a college degree and with significant coding projects to show.

The US tech industry has very brutal competition for jobs. In my opinion, it is a waste of time to try to try finding tech employment without any significant accomplishments - accomplishments that prove you are better than the competition that is trying take the same job opining away from you.