Well, if you don't have the qualifications then you'll have to prove your skills somehow. Having a portfolio will help a lot here.

Otherwise it's just about who you know, because if you don't have qualifications you won't get looked at for most jobs around here (UK).

>>372
I'm not OP but also interested in knowing about this,
Does a portfolio have to be proved to be one's own work, or can I just say:

"Yes, I contribute to the Xfce internationalisation efforts, and have provided a few other patches for them too. Besides, here's some stuff I have done in my own time: an emulator written in assembler, plus some machine translation program I wrote and toyed around with"

>>373
It's entirely up to you, really. Having proof of your skills is obviously a boon.

You might get called out if you brag about things though.

What I meant by a portfolio was in essence a CV. One not stuffed with all that volunteer work you did at Wal-mart stacking shelves to get "experience of the workplace". Write about what you can do and prove it with examples of what you have done.

Degree is less important than being able to demonstrate skills and ability. But I'll add some concreteness:

When I evaluate a list of job applicants (Friday mornings), I separate them into those with an obvious GitHub account and those without. Then I go through those without and try to find a GitHub account for them; those that I find go into the first pile. Those without a GitHub account get a rejection email.

Harsh, but I have too many resumes to sort through.

Since you're trying to get a job, I'll tell you some more about my process from here:

I read through the resumes at this point, specifically the work experience, projects, and skills. Misspellings: rejected. Typos: rejected. I love devs who have started companies, run side projects or open source projects, contributed to open source, organized events, built community, given talks.

Those who stand out in that regard get a 30-minute video interview. The rest get a rejection email.

You also ask about immigration:

I'm a recent immigrant to a Nordic country. It's a tedious pain in the ass, and the xenophobia here means that even when I master the language my accent will keep potential business away. However, setting up a company is totally possible, and hiring more devs is also reasonable, even immigrants.

I emigrated from the US. There, you must have a university degree in the field you are being hired in. For example, if your degree is in Marketing but you are applying to be a Web Designer, the US would reject you.

Happy hacking!

>>379

Ok, you have convinced me to finally download Github.