&gt; I&#x27;m a mostly self-taught developer with some formal training in CS<p>Not really a problem. I believe the most awesome programmers are the ones that come from a self-taught background. Some employers often see this as a good trait, as you set aside time to learn and not slack off. Also, coming from another field and going into programming is a good bonus as you see programming in a different angle compared to someone who&#x27;s rooted deep into programming (the &quot;wrote my first BASIC at 4 years old and been programming eversince&quot; kind of person)<p>&gt; I try to be as full-stack as I can be, but I&#x27;ve tried to focus mostly on JavaScript &amp; Node.js<p>Don&#x27;t. You know JS, therefore you know half the story of Node. All you need to compensate for is the knowledge of existing tools and modules. Get another server-side language instead of Node.js. PHP, Java and C# are in the same ballpark in terms of familiarity.<p>&gt; what can I do to best distinguish myself from the competition?<p>Just be yourself. That&#x27;s the best way to make yourself distinguished. Being someone you&#x27;re not is the absolute worst thing you&#x27;d want to show to your potential employer. Show off what you&#x27;ve got, but don&#x27;t create stuff just to show off. What I mean is, if you have past projects, show them off. Don&#x27;t create stuff for the sake of that interview. Github commits from 2 weeks ago don&#x27;t lie.