Ask HN: No formal software education – is there hope for me?
I&#x27;ll start by saying that I&#x27;ve worked with many self taught programmers and they were all excellent (perhaps there was a selection bias?).  They also always had humorous holes in their knowledge (which they were always quick to rectify).<p>So it&#x27;s totally doable.<p>&gt; Many places I apply to want people who have experience in software development or they want to hire a junior for some super low pay<p>The truth of it is that you&#x27;ll probably have to take a junior job first.  Even with a great GitHub profile, there is no easy way to know if you can actually do it, since there is no way to really know how much of your Github profile you actually created.<p>The good news is that if you really are good, you&#x27;ll get promoted quickly (or be able to quickly move to a more senior role elsewhere).  But sadly, you&#x27;ll probably have to suffer at least a year in a junior role to &quot;prove yourself&quot;.