I Taught Myself to Code on a Cracked Android Phone. Now I Can't Get Hired
rly0nheart.comI’m a Principal Engineer in my early 40s. My “credentials” consist entirely of a high school diploma from a rural school.
I tinkered with programming as far back as 1994 or so (I was 10 years old at the time), on a 486 dx/2. I installed Mandrake Linux (Now Mandriva? if it’s still around), had to write my own connection scripts for my 56k modem, and I was off to the races in C. I played with VB5 quite a bit in high school.
I had a full scholarship to a state university in 2002, but lost it due to undiagnosed ADHD and depression. In 2012 I enrolled in WGU because I needed a degree to climb at my corporate job… but less than a year later I realized that corporate wasn’t really for me, and decided to pursue startups instead. That was a good decision.
My advice: do whatever it takes to get in the door at the type of company where you want to work. That’s the hard part. Once there, you do the best job you can and constantly look for ways to put your skills to use. This is the boring part - it’ll probably take a couple of years, but in my experience you can slowly mold any position into one that’s either “programming” or “programming-adjacent”. Once you do that, it’s a short leap to get the actual title.
FWIW, I summarized your skills and forwarded this post to a couple of recruiters I have good relationships with, including one at my own employer.
Based on your experience, you seem like you'd be a great "non-traditional" lead. Here's hoping!
Someone is impersonating me. If you try to contact me, please use the links on my blog.
These aren't mine:
https://xcancel.com/rly0nheart https://about.me/rly0nheart
Unfortunately, I don't think I can report impersonation on X without having an account, and X is a no go for me.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and for forwarding my post to recruiters. That means more than you know. Your path resonates with me, especially the part about molding positions into programming adjacent roles. I've been trying to get "in the door" for months now, but the ATS filters seem to catch me before anyone human sees my work. The depression struggle is too real!! I've dealt with similar challenges while doing contract work. Some days the rejection emails pile up, and it's hard to keep going. I really appreciate you taking the time to help. The "non traditional lead" framing is interesting, though I've honestly never thought about positioning myself that way :). At this point, I'd just be grateful to get in the door anywhere.
Hoping something comes from those recruiter connections. Thank you again for believing in me enough to vouch for me to them.
> I installed Mandrake Linux (Now Mandriva? if it’s still around)
Mandriva doesn't exist anymore, but it left descendants, OpenMandriva, Mageia and ROSA, IIRC.
I'm sorry, are you me?? This tracks my story (minus the WGU stint) almost exactly.
We're even the same age, it's spooky!
Maybe you're a variant from somewhere in the multiverse? :D
Skill is irrelevant here. In this particular case a degree is more or less a matter of provenance. Poster's profile likely fits North Korean devs looking for work, too.
It doesn't matter how skilled I am, no country will let me cross their border without a passport. I can sit around and treat it as a personal slight, but that will do zilch for my situation.
In your case it might be best to focus on finding a local (or semi-local) branch of a multinational business to work for (where you can work in person). That will become that provenance.
I appreciate the passport analogy, but I think the comparison to North Korean developers is misplaced. My work is entirely public and verifiable. I have years of commit history on GitHub. Ben Boyter, who shared this post, has worked with me directly. The people I've worked with can vouch for me without any problems at all.
The "provenance" exists. Companies just don't look at it because they filter on credentials first. As for working locally, there are very few tech opportunities in Zambia that pay a living wage. That's part of why remote work seemed like the solution, but it requires getting past the same filters
I understand the concern about verification. I just wish the bar for verification was "look at their public work" rather than "do they have a degree from a recognisd institution."
Also, you didn't have to make it sound like I'm/might be a security risk. That kind of sentiment isn't helpful when the evidence to verify me is already public.
As probably guessable, the state of author is in has not much to do with the Cracked Android Phone, but that I assume he tries to find remote positions (already a hard find) in US from an African country (assumption, doesn't write details). For that to happen, you need rockstar credentials. No business can accept the risk of fraud, scams, sanctioned origin country, or a dev disappearing overnight.
I was hiring devs for a number of years in EU, and we never ever looked at education - more specifically, any degree was good, as it was only an indicator that the person can learn. I would never assume practical software engineering knowledge based on a degree.
Anyone in the same situation, what the author did is a perfectly good way - build up knowledge, get mentors, build up a portfolio, work for well-known entities. But then judge your market value realistically, and possibly be in the same region/country. Even if it could technically possible, remote work with such distances has too much legal liability.
You're right that I'm looking for remote positions from Zambia, and that distance adds complexity. But I don't think the issue is legal liability or risk of fraud. I worked remotely for Bellingcat for 8 months. They're an internationally recognised investigative journalism organisation. If they could verify me and manage the "legal liability," I don't see why tech companies can't. The risk assesment you're describing assumes that being from Africa without a degree makes someone inherently risky. But I have verifiable work history, public code, and people who can vouch for me. That should count as verification. I understand market realities. I'm not expecting to walk into a senior role at a FAANG company. But entry or mid-level positions shouldn't require "rockstar credentials" just because of geography. That's not about risk managment, it's about gatekeeping. The advice to "be in the same region/country" isn't practical when there are very few tech opportunities locally that pay a living wage. Remote work was supposed to democratise access to these jobs. If it only works for people in certain countries, that's a problem worth pointing out.
What is probably happening, based on my own experience inside companies doing hiring, is that we generally get flooded with CVs anytime we put up a job listing, and most of them are irrelevant. To help manage the flow of applicants, we use recruiters and HR people to filter the resumes. Since they don’t know how to evaluate engineers, inevitably they filter CVs by the somewhat arbitrary criteria that is in the job listing.
My recommendation for you, when you see a job listing, is to investigate the company and project, try and find people on the responsible teams, and see if you can network or reach out to them directly. This often will get you past the arbitrary screening that is setup, and they’re much more likely to be able to judge you on your merits and not whether you meet some arbitrary filtering goal. The first pass in hiring is always a fast rejection pass, and is rarely one that is looking for qualified people, just one that is trying to get the flow of applicants down to a manageable level.
Hello, I'm the author of that article. I will reply to everyone properly. For now, I want to raise some awareness of someone impersonating me online using my handle:
https://xcancel.com/rly0nheart
These aren't me. I'm no longer on X or about.me.
> Android phone with a cracked screen
One potential option would be to get an online CS degree from somewhere like WGU. An official stamp of "I know my shit" that would get you past most HR filters with a minimal money and time commitment
Might learn a thing or two, also
"What I Really Want to Say" is well written, and my heart goes out to this person.
It is quite difficult to be on both sides of the situation.
I also taught myself to code; first on a C64, then A500, PC, Mac.
Then I studied robotics at university, which forced me to dig into several subjects I most likely would never have touched by free choice.
That foundation took me this far, we'll see what I'm doing once whatever this is has passed.
I'm not even sure I even want to work with software anymore.
No one gives a shit these days, which means experience is worthless and the chances of doing good few and far between.
I relate to the burnout. Some days the rejection emails make me wonder if it's worth it. But I still love building things. I just wish the industry valued that more than credentials.
Hope you find what works for you, whatever that ends up being.
All of a sudden, becoming a goose farmer is starting to sound pretty appealing to me :D
Yeah, I've been looking into alternative careers.
The fact that the potential is there matters less if it's impossible to achieve.