Re: how hard is it to find a job without a degree?

Some 17 year-old sold a million dollar Perl app a few years ago. Open source means you can have experience (write real code to solve real problems or even just clever toys and prototypes) and prove it easily if you want (public source, contributions to open source projects). My degree is soft/arts (BA), not hard/science (BS). So, I essentially don't have a degree as far as as programming jobs go. The last three times I was hired I was told that there was no competition.

It took me 7 years and nearly daily work/practice to get to that point; and part of it was how few Perl-centric devs there are now. How hard it was is a matter of interpretation. I think I spent 70+ hours once doing nothing but trying to install mod_perl. It was the most miserable and frustrating programming task I ever finished. I also wrote hundreds of small scripts and one-liners that were a joy. If I didn't love Perl it would have mostly been miserable, but since I do, it was mostly fun.

Update: I think LanX has boiled down the answer well.

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Re^2: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 25, 2015 at 07:00 UTC
...It took me 7 years and nearly daily work/practice to get to that point; and part of it was how few Perl-centric devs there are now Thank you again. Did you have a programming job in the meantime? Apprenticeship? ...?	[reply]
Re^3: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Aug 25, 2015 at 12:46 UTC
This is a good question because I glossed a lot. I wrote a loooong reply. Too long. So, as the kids say, TL;DR: I'm self-taught at the sacrifice of tons of personal/free time, and then working in jobs where I could apply Perl here and there even though I was not paid to program. I had a background and aptitude for CS and math from childhood so it's not a miracle, :P just a lot of effort. The monastery helped me get out of many bad habits and break out of the Dunning–Kruger stage of my hacking skills. :P	[reply]
Re^2: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 25, 2015 at 06:57 UTC
Thank you Your Mother The last three times I was hired I was told that there was no competition. What do you mean, you were the only applicant? Or ...?	[reply]
Re^3: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Aug 25, 2015 at 11:20 UTC
None of the other applicants, though I don't think there were many, could compete with me. :P	[reply]
Re^4: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 25, 2015 at 11:31 UTC
None of the other applicants, though I don't think there were many, could compete with me. :P :) Handsom too I assume :D Also, did you mention your BA on that resume?	[reply]
Re^5: how hard is it to find a job without a degree? by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Aug 25, 2015 at 12:40 UTC
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