Two observations
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I think that employers put too much emphasis on having prior experience when considering new hires. After 10+ years developing commercial C++ software in four different companies, I've observed that the worst programmers in your place of work tend to be those that: 1) Type very slowly. I don't mean they type awkwardly or are not touch typists. I just mean they are slow. 2) Have little to no formal training in computer science. I've worked with many computer/electrical engineers, math/physics grads who have taken a computer science option in university and are excellent programmers. But those same types of grads without any formal training usually suck big time. My observation is based on my own experience, not in regards to members of this site. There may well be many great articles on CodeProject written by people who are self-taught programmers, etc. These people likely have a gift or talent for programming.