There is a tremendous depth in that particular rabbit hole. Your success (or lack thereof) in life will depend on you understanding how you got to this point (18, broke, and not even the Army will take you) and at the same time did not do the minimum needed (figure out how to finish high school). The advice here is that navigating life is like swimming, there really isn't any "right" way to do it, however there are ways to do it such that you end up drowning. Understanding that has to come from inside of you.

If you need cash now, I suggest you help older people with their Internet. There are a bazillion of them, they don't know an SSID from a SSN, and they want to be able to participate in the tech heavy world around them. Join a church, visit the Rotary club, walk door to door, or just set up a table at a nursing home (with permission of the home of course) offering "free help with your smart phone, tips appreciated". It won't be rolling in dough but it can keep you off the street and fed.

If you can, visualize what you want to be, and then work backward from there to see what you need to do today to get there. Good luck.

Thank you for this honest advice. Don't worry, I'm going to be okay, because I have plenty of options outside of software, so I understand where you're coming from.

I worked my ass off to build software enginnering experience taking on challenges for little to no pay. That alone didnt keep me fed all the time while I was learning to market myself (and gaining more skills to market).

I did everything from working many day-labor jobs (manpower, laborready, etc), factory work, tractor sales, retail, telemarketing, street preforming, teaching old people to use the internet, etc.

It was a long road but over time I began to get the occasional programming gig for clients in way over their heads with money to burn. Allowed me to build confidence, income, and vital experience. I made sure I earned my keep and got referrals.

So far I have started 5 companies, worked for/with countless others, tackled hundreds of fun projects, learned a lot of tough/valuable lessons, and built a network of incredible people. I am now working as a software engineer at an amazing startup and I love my job.

TLDR If someone like me can make it, anyone can. Just gotta work for it and learn how to leverage the resources around you.

Also... ignore the people saying you can't make it without a degree. Many of my friends employed at major tech firms don't have anything but hard earned experience. No one worth working for has degrees as a manditory prereq. Obtaining a degree or two may well be the easier/sane path for most, but certainly not the only one. My path was at least debt free and came with experience I would not trade for anything.

Feel free email me (google for it) or hit me up via http://hashbang.sh . Lot of very successful mentors there that love helping people like you.

I regularly hire development contractors and the two failure modalities I see most often are:

1. Failure to communicate/organize/deliver on time. This is particularly pronounced amongst younger developers who frequently end up losing focus midway through a project and "go dark." The #1 way to avoid this is to set expectations, meet those expectations, and communicate along the way. Given your educational background, this is probably the biggest hurdle you have to overcome.

2. Inadequate assessment of abilities. Unfortunately many younger developers think they're a lot better than they are so they try to tackle super-challenging projects. If you're young and inexperienced, start with the easy stuff (ie. basic CRUD apps for boring businesses). Probably the best way to improve is to latch on to a popular open source project and find a mentor in that community who can teach you best practices around design patterns, testing, etc.

Finally, I'd suggest that you work a bit on your personal marketing. Don't focus on your age or that you're "hungry." Fake it till you make it. Also, put a clear list of skills (with demonstrative projects linked) right up front. (I'm only 21, but you wouldn't know that from the front page of my website.)

I don't want to market myself as something I'm not, so I've probably been too cautious not to. I don't want to have someones expectations of me drop, but I think you're right.

EDIT All of the jobs I've gotten have worked out, btw. I apologize for not answering that in the initial reply.

In that case, you should immediately ask all your previous clients:

1) If they have any additional work they'd be interested in hiring you for (but phrase it something like this: "My schedule is opening up a bit in the next few weeks and I wanted to make sure you got first crack before my availability tightens up again.")

2) If they don't have any additional projects, ask them for a testimonial (on LinkedIn and your site) and to refer you to any of their friends who might need a similarly skilled developer.

Pick fruit, cut grass, clean pools.

Living in abundance at young age sometimes stops people from carefully thinking what in their life is important

It is really great that you have figure out your future path I think you really should continue learn and practise, you may not necessarily need to work for some established companies, there are tons of open source project that you could take a look.

I wish I can figure out my path when I was 18 man, good luck.

Also, don't tell my future employers but being broke doesn't scare me (just causes horrid stress), I just want to have something awesome under my belt in 10-20 years. :-)

Thanks for the positive comment!

I don't like to make rushed decisions when it comes to money or health. If you're having trouble getting a job as a developer, consider that you have made a huge mistake in dropping out of high school and employers are not going to take a risk on you even if you are a true talent.

Anyhow, if you can go home, I think you should. If you opt to get your GED, that's good for your personal development but not much else. Most employers are going to be leery of you in any case since you couldn't keep it together enough to finish HS.

Aging into your 20's will help, and if you're any good, you'll get enough freelance jobs or contractor jobs that you'll make up for your past mistakes on your resume and can try out for full time positions at companies you like.

I am also not keen on the idea of working for free anywhere as an intern for future promises of employment or purely for experience, especially with your history. Don't let yourself get exploited.

Get some sleep.

Survival depends on doing things with which we are uncomfortable or expending greater efforts elsewhere.

Education is great if you teach yourself basic math, writing and so on, but education is most often a distraction to getting down to actual work that makes money. The failure of ourselves is when we let pride or ego get ahead of rational self-interest.

There are plenty of blue-collar skilled trades that pay 100k+/year that academia-brainwashed people look down upon. Welder, electrian, plumber, carpenter, mechanic, on and on. Check out Mike Rowe's nonprofit for more... Nuclear industry rated and underwater welders make crazy money. Btw nurses and medical will always be needed and the pay is great. Want a niche technical OR specialty that doesnt always require an MD? perfusionist (heart lung machines). You would honestly be able to say you were legally sanctioned to kill people for a living without the morass of being a PMC, because you would be that person that flips the switch at EOL.

If you have the sand, fishing and crabbing makes coin by being hard and risky. Taxi drivers also on dry land.

Just pick something, try it out, move on if too terrible, don't waste time on analysis paralysis because it's just procrastination.

Military (army, navy, Air Force, marines, coast guard) has tons of logistics service jobs, and will pay for university. My stepbrother started off as a navy radar tech, lived all over, did college, air school and now flies f/a-18's.

This is my opinion: since you're 18 you have a God-given right to mooch. :) Consider how hard it is for college grads to get good paying jobs these days.

Be humble with your parents and try to get work such that you can pay some rent and maintain your dignity. If they don't require you to pay rent when you're working, you should pay them something anyhow.

As others said, your side projects are going to help you get into companies. Work like a bastard on them when you're not working your day job. Work like a bastard on your side projects in any case for as long as you have the energy and passion - it will set you apart.

College is an option too since you have your GED? Community college is more purgatory don't do that if you can avoid it, but state or private college isn't. You'll actually learn real computer science fundamentals and wire up your brain right technically and socially.

Find small IT services firms in your area, call them, and ask if they're looking for people. I guarantee you're at least 2 steps above who they normally get, and depending on their size and customer base you may be able to get good local freelance development projects and references while helping them keep their customers happy. You may also get a variety of experience with both business needs and end users that may be very valuable to you later. You'll also help with things that seem incredibly simple to you like basic spreadsheet or macro stuff - something you'll spend 15 minutes on that will literally save a business staffer or manager days of error-prone tweaking by hand.

I don't have a university degree, and the only times that has stopped me in an interview process is places that I likely wouldn't have wanted to work anyway. Even Google, which prefers people to have a university degree, will make an exception if they see you've got the experience and capability. This is speaking from experience, though I dropped out of the Google interview process as I needed a visa in shorter amount of time than they were going to take in making a hiring decision.

Slowly but surely I would bid for and receive more lead development work. At minimum wage people would clamor for my attention and time, interest really dropped off around $30-40 an hour and people started to get pushy about productivity and "how long is this going to take?" .

Your dismissal of the education system is a little sad too but as a non-American, I'm not in a position to judge the situation. Despite the bad rep education systems get, I think the benefits of formal education can't be understated. It's not just the skills you learn directly from courses but the critical analysis and other soft skills that you pick up which are often most valuable. I'm glad that you seem to have the interest to direct yourself toward new knowledge - that's just as valuable and not orthogonal to formal education.

I had a look at your Github and, IMHO, it's not something that would cause me to hire or partner with you. That is one person's random opinion on the Internet though so please don't take it as rude or disheartening. You are writing code and it is interesting, that's a great start especially for someone as young as yourself. Keep writing code when you can and I'm sure you'll end up doing something you love.

Good luck and I hope you get some good advice from this thread but remember that you should put your health and basic needs first. Passion and repositories usually aren't enough to pay the rent.

And do your research before job interviews. Understand the ins and outs of the company, their competition. I turn down people who I can tell haven't checked out our website let alone the industry prior to applying.

someone i know worked in a general store in his teens, he's been running his own cafe business for 20 years now - working in the store taught him almost everything he needed to know to run a cafe.

1. You need to make money somehow. Worst case scenario you go to work at something like LaborReady or Manpower. It's exhausting work but if you show up and put in a little effort you'll always have work. For a little while I was on a request list for companies that used Labor Ready. It doesn't take much to stand out from the crowd there.

2. You need to get exposure. This can happen through Github, OSS projects, and your blog. But most important find your niche. Become an expert in something that there aren't many experts in. I got my first real job because I became expert at Perl at a time when there weren't many people claiming to be experts in Perl. It can be a language, Framework, technology stack, whatever. After you're first full time job though you will gain contacts and a network. You can then play that out into career growth.

Nothing is guaranteed but you have options.

The bad thing is that they don't pay you very much.

If it can be used to encourage others it is a net win, yeah?

It's sort of a quasi startup. The company is established but the software side of things is new. I'm helping to bootstrap their dev team with my brother.

Does anyone know of any similar programs elsewhere in the country? (Looks like the OP is in Georgia)

If your career goal is software development, you can and should get relevant experience and a paycheck together. Only take an unrelated job (like the restaurants you mentioned) if that's the only way to stay fiscally/mentally healthy.

While you may be enough of a self-teacher and hustler to do a lot of remote/solo work to get by, at your career stage you really need to be working with a larger group of more-experienced people. (College-like programs are one way to achieve that, but interesting/competent/functional workplaces are, too.)

Your first, second, and third priority should be to be near and working-with people you can learn from. Research all such workplaces near you, and be willing to take any starting position someplace they're doing the kind of work you want to do. Any role can grow quickly once you're in the door.

Your age is less important than the fact you're "entry level" to the full-time workforce. Your lack of credentials can be largely offset by any prior work that shows promise, a good attitude, and acredible interest in filling any skills-gaps over time (with both on-job and off-job projects and education).

It's expected you'll learn on the job, you just want to send the signals that: (1) it won't be too long of a ramp-up before you're a net benefit to the employer; and (2) if a firm is patient with you, you're interested enough in their projects/business they'll have a chance of retaining you, when you're more-experienced.

Just apply. Stop hesitating. I sense way too much questioning from you regarding your own skill level and how you fair out there.

If you only have a month to come up with some income, you need to get a job doing construction, mowing lawns, etc. Just do something to eat while you apply for dev positions.

And keep populating your GitHub account. That never hurts.

And as immoral as it seems, DO NOT be afraid to lie a little. A lot of people here will dismiss the need for white lies in reaching most levels of success, even if that success is landing a dev position that pays 50k. Don't listen to those people. You need money and a place to grow -- you need to be just as relentless and dogged as your competition is. In America, that competition is a lot of kids who want green cards, a lot of kids who have degrees, and a lot of kids who have no heart when it comes down to grabbing opportunities. Don't overdo it. But it really won't hurt to say that you're a little better at what you do than you actually are. It wouldn't hurt to say you've built a few IRC bot clients a few years ago when you didn't (be prepared to explain how you did that on the spot, though).

Nothing about the wild teaches us that hunting is easy. Just because we're civilized animals, don't believe for one moment that it's not just as harsh in society when you're trying to eat as it is out in the wilderness.

Finally: It seems like you already know this, but just to reinforce this value: don't be ashamed to take a job that you'd normally considered beneath your skill set or potential. Ever.

Good luck, my man.

Hide all social media you own unless it has to do with code and it's clean. No one really needs to know about your atheism and your thoughts on the caveats of modern society. Despite being unable to deny someone of employment based on such opinions, people do. All someone would have to do with you is say "he doesn't qualify because of his level of education," when all they really mean is, "I hate people with his political/religious views."

Take your job search as seriously as possible.

I'm going to survive either way, but if I can get coding work instead of lawn mowing, that seems better to me! Either way, I'll do what I need to, like everyone has to. I guess gloating a little bit wouldn't hurt about some things, and I hear what you're saying. I just couldn't take having my reputation ripped to shreds over a lie; So I stay cautious.

I've only denied one job that was offered and that was one for minimum wage code work. It was at a time where I didn't need the work, however.

Have a good one!

I've looked into a few open source projects before, but most of my time has been spent on various game ideas and such that weren't really open source.

I claim to be a Lua expert but there doesn't seem to be any jobs out there for that (and it's simple, but according to some articles I haven't used it long enough). I should have listened to a couple mentors when they told me to master something else. I can't really dislike the experience though because I've learned a ton, and got to meet some interesting people in several communities.

#1: An internship is probably easier to come by than a full-time position, since it's less of a risk for employers. You're still young enough that internships are appropriate; take advantage of that.

#2: You don't have to advertise the fact that you got a GED. Just list the years you were in high school, or don't list education at all. Even when I was still in school, I never put my GPA on a resume. As an interviewer now, I never even look at the education section.

#3: Write a good cover letter that summarizes some of the cool projects you've built, like LoveOS and Derplang. Be sure to explain _why_ they're cool.

I will do as you said and stay away from advertising the education part of my history. Of course I will answer all questions about it honestly, though.

I appreciate the comment on those projects, Ill be sure to include them in my cover letters if you think it will help.

The more you slip in showing the client something/anything, the higher the expectations of the client will grow.

For example, 'oh it will take about 2 weeks to get X done'. If you get to two weeks later and you're like 'sorry, taking longer than usual', the client's expectations will be start to boil up as a function of their trust being tested (corollary - when someone vouches for you as a freelancer, you will destroy their trust if you don't deliver and the client comes back to them).

Show progress/wireframes/communicate progress in a non-condescending manner. One extreme is no communication at all, the other extreme is participation in daily progress meetings with the client. Slant towards more communication, as miscommunication is at the root of most freelancing evil.

Go find any job you can get, most of my friends did best buy retail. Get your GED then do 1 year of community college taking intro CS classes. Do that and list out all your github stuff in a portfolio, then you will seem much more desirable and at least a defendable risk to take on.

I think school is for the most part total bullshit and you don't learn much for the amount of time and money you invest in it. All the best stuff I know I taught myself because I was interested or on the job. I have a masters degree is CS and teach community college CS classes, I did it not for the knowledge but to open opportunities for myself which others might not consider me for because I'd look like the risky option compared to others applying for the same job. In many places management and hiring processes are just as broken as the educational system.

two important additions i'd like to mention about community college:

1) it allows networking and access to employment opportunities that may not have existed prior. (job fairs, lab employment, on-site training, random placements, etc)

2) it opens doors for bigger and better academic opportunities, which compound the effects of the first point.

3) It allows entry for a class of jobs that OP was previously un-allowed to even apply for: "BS minimum/5+ years experience in relevant field"

That is true. But a little bit of "I'm God's gift to humanity" will go a long way. Try a little. (A little.)

I suggest going to meetups and namedropping your GitHub

> listed all that I've done on my GitHub, Linkedin

Do that! Unless there was some rubbishy work that doesn't enhance your market value, use your existing work to prove yourself.

Try going to meetups and namedropping your GitHub. Say enthusiastically: "Wow, I love the way WebWorkers fit into Angular JS. I put together a project on GitHub ... exciting stuff, take a look!" Getting back to my first point, no one minds a little arrogance so long as you have something to back it up!

I know this will be a controversial suggestion, but I am offering it as someone who takes his own advice (I'm in the Army). This suggestion isn't for the faint of heart.

I would say if you're not a conscientious objector, you should go down and see an Air Force recruiter. They have a pretty good selection of technical jobs you could do.

Then you'd get out with the GI bill in a few years and they'd pay your rent the whole time you're in college. 36 months of tuition plus a salary stipend of an E-5 (sergeant).

Just something to mull over. The military does actually have some pretty cool mentally stimulating work, if you have the brain, which you obviously do.

Lastly, I've heard good success stories of people who've been to dev bootcamps (such as Hacker School etc.) which excel in getting you competent enough for an entry level job in a tech company. A simple Google search would help you find a couple near your area. Save up for it and consider giving that a shot as well.

All the best!

When I was in a community college, I was under the impression that it was not too hard to get some financial aid. Would it be possible for you to work part-time while studying?

I advised him to take a programming course at the local community college, but I told him the greatest value he'd get was almost certainly not what he would learn in class, but the connections he would make with students and faculty.

Fortunately for him (and for my reputation as a sage) before the first semester was over the boss of one of his fellow students literally knocked on his door to recruit him.

At the time he was sleeping on his brother's couch. Don't be afraid to ask for help from family if it's available, it can be crucial, and one day you'll return the favor.

Although you can do so much with your programming prowess, going to college would only help. See if you can get into community college. Spend an year or two there, work hard, make friends, and then transfer out to a better school.

What you don't say is how you've looked for work and what happened. Do you apply and never get called back? Do you get interviews,but no offer? Are you willing to relocate or does it have to be remote work?

Otherwise, just keep looking and programming, you seem really passionate about it and started at a very young age (I begun programming when I was 22). If you really need some money, try anything that pays your rent/food/etc. and on the side keep looking for programming gigs.

I don't think it is a matter of luck, so I will just wish you a good night of sleep and a more relaxed mind.

Sorry about my english, lack of practice hurts that much.

PHP was a fun language; I wrote this (https://github.com/jessehorne/phpbf) with it. Some would say that's no where near enough to experience PHP, but I got enough taste to realize it was similar to a lot of other languages I had dabbled with in the past.

I'm going to look into a couple of PHP forums, probably related to some popular framework to see if I can find some work. The time it would take to learn one of them is time I could spend developing using a language that I know already, but I guess priority should be determined after this thread has died.

Thank you for the advice, friend.

If you want a simple business model that works, sell t-shirts on a high pedestrian traffic area or tourist trap area (pier 39 sf). You may even clean people's car windows for tips and pay at gas stations if you ask the owner|manager & explain (many gas stations are independently owned.. Expect to have to visit 10-15 stations to get approval and be super sincere). It's generic hard work, but it's doable without skill or funding. Also sign up for TaskRabbit for more skilled jobs that could pay more. (See a pattern.. Try lots of things and hustle to get to higher paying gigs.). Btw playing up youth leads to money... Stay clean, shave, youthful attire and get a haircut if needed... You're the product if you offer a service. (Either look professional or super pathetic, in between leads to less cash.)

Some religious organizations will help you, others like most of those in Silicon Valley, only do happy-clappy and no social service volunteering as do others in poorer areas. In fact if you ever had to bet outright, don't bother begging from rich people, beg from lower/middle class areas.

If it's a super emergency in the US, apply for food stamps and general assistance at your local social services agency. They'll usually give it to you the same day in the form of an EBT card that works at Costco, grocery stores and pharmacies. It's a pittance, but it will keep you alive if you budget it very carefully. (Beware: massive fees at almost every ATM. Always get cash back at stores instead.) They may even throw in medical insurance if you're broke enough. (I was a teacher in a minority area and had to help emancipated students get food and get to school... I've seen almost everything. :( ). Rationalize going on the dole as a buffer that you will pay back through taxes many times over later, or to wealth and minimal taxes and let the middle class handle that.

Cut your expenses (don't eat out) and travel as least as possible. Maybe buy a cheapish van and live in it instead of paying rent. Cancel all those monthly Internet services (games, Netflix, Hulu, spotify), perhaps even phone service. Use coffee shops for power and data, maybe go Skype / google voice only. Cut luxury prepared foods too. Shelter, food and transportation (gas) are the actual necessities... Everthing else is a choice to rationalize excessive consumerism. (Stop smoking, drinking and latte habits if present... This is where most poor people hemorrhage money and may harm their health too. For blanks sake don't drink or do drugs but do get good sleep, your judgement (wits) needs to be perfect or one mistake on the street will kill you... You need to be making the best possible decisions as often as possible to bootstrap yourself back to where you want to be.)

Don't count on a startup for income... It's always a long shot / crapshoot and most stories are pure survivor bias hiding the work, pain and luck involved.

I'm going to get that book, and read it, and try to remember to contact you once I have. We can chat about it. I like your thinking. Thank you!

No worries. Stay out of trouble. G'd luck ;)

Doing a dig on *.github.io shows github.fastly.net so probably thats why you're seeing that.

Maybe do this?

"Do something awesome that you are passionate about." I've donated quite a few hours just building applications with friends. There is no better feeling being productive, working on something awesome with interesting people. Only recently did I decide to stop working for free because it was a necessity (and a few articles convinced me not to as well).

Passion may be working for 3 - 6 months to save to go to a development bootcamp or just working through it. I know several have programs to get financing to do it, if that is a possibility.

I've hired people from dev bootcamp and can say these programs are worth it. Just be smart about it.

If you are passionate, then dedicating several months to save money to go to one of the schools by taking any job while staying sharp should be worth it. To the point, you are 18 yrs old and can take the few months now of working a whole to set up the rest of your life.

Just don't go in debt. That lasts awhile, and I'm sure there's plenty of people here who have been in it through a bad startup.

I can share with you that my passion has not always paid me dividends but has taught me much and has led me to the right experiences that led me to jobs that have paid me well.

Do some that you give a shit about, even if it makes no money right now... gain experience and in the long run experience will make you money.

If you're 18 you probably have no liabilities at this moment other than to eat and keep warm. Know that that makes you _free_ and there is nothing more enabling than being _free_.

You have a skill, find someone who needs your skill and ask them to pay you more than you think you are worth - chances are you are underestimating yourself. Never apologize or downplay your skill or experience. Hustle.

This is my advice to you.

1) Unless it's handed to you, don't focus on freelance. You're young and inexperienced. Even if you have the best of intentions, if you take on a solo project, you're not even going to be aware of the mistakes you're making, and rather than learning from them and improving, you will likely turn bad practices into bad habits. Right now you need to learn. You need to find a small team that you can join as an intern or Jr. Developer. You need to be in an environment where people around you can accelerate your education. Forget pride. Forget expectations. Embrace the ability to learn and grow by making professional mistakes in an environment where others will point out those mistakes and the team will carry much of your weight while you gain experience.

2) When networking and interviewing, don't sell yourself on what you know. In the grand scheme, you don't know much, and you can't win by competing on something that you lack. When I hire Jr. Developers, I don't really care what they know or, on the surface, what they've done. I'm not hiring them for experience or knowledge. I'm hiring them for their passion and their thirst for knowledge. I'm making a gamble that the investment that I make into that person is going to pay back 10 times. What matters to me is how willing that person is to admit their weaknesses and to jump at the opportunity to learn. Market yourself accordingly. Focus on networking through whatever local meetups you can find. Ask (or beg) experienced developers in your area to meet you for coffee so that you can pick their brain or ask advice. Always be inquisitive. Do personal projects to challenge yourself. Find the things at the very edge of your ability or comprehension, and challenge yourself to find what lays just beyond. Repeat.

3) Show that you're committed. Many people disagree with the traditional education system, especially in CS. But, the one thing that it shows is that if you commit yourself to something that you will see it through. That said, I don't have a CS degree and a rarely give a shit about a degree for anyone I'm hiring, but, you need to find some way to demonstrate that commitment. As I said, I'm going to invest heavily into you. The last thing in the world that I want is someone that three months in suddenly feels like they no longer care, or, worse yet, are now beyond the role.

4) On areas where you are knowledgeable, speak your mind. No one wants to hire a limp fish. When I invest in helping you to grow, I'm going to look to you to help the next young developer grow. That requires someone that is willing to stick up for what they think is the right way to do a thing. But, this specific piece of advice comes with two important caveats. First, don't boastfully preach on areas where you are not informed. It's called bull-shitting, and those around you will know. And second, however strongly you hold a belief, always remember that as we grow our beliefs will evolve. Don't close yourself off from different ideas or opinions.

One of the best developers that I ever hired broke down in the middle of a technical interview. We were hammering him about some somewhat advanced Javascript concepts and he couldn't provide answers. He was visibly upset and frustrated and clearly felt by the end of the interview that he wouldn't be hearing back from us. Before he left, he told me, "You know, I'm sorry that I got upset. I'm frustrated that I can't answer these questions. But most of all, I'm frustrated that I'm not at a place where I can learn to answer these questions." That was one of the most honest and impactful things I've heard from any candidate and I knew on the spot that he was the right hire. In the last three years that he's been on my team, he has gone from limited experience outside of HTML and Javascript, to production quality Ruby, Objective C, and Java development.

That's what I look for in an inexperienced developer.

Put as much information on major job sites like Monster, SimplyHired, Indeed, Dice,etc.. It's boring and if you don't have much to list, disheartening, but likely you'll get some recruiters calling you to try to fit you into whatever job de jour they have cooking that day. At least having someone calling though with minor interest helps boost confidence.

Apply to small local companies, don't bother with huge organizations(e.g. power companies, healthcare). If there is a long drawn out application process on their website, avoid it. Ensure you include a cover letter and customize it to include something about the company, and why you'd be excited to work for them(e.g. you like their product, and can see how it could make a difference in the world).

Get your GED. I think you're giving a poor excuse for why you don't have it. There are tons of places to take the GED test. Get it at least scheduled and go.

Even if you don't want to go through the typical education process, jobs won't just land in your lap. You're likely going to have to work just as hard(or harder) driving yourself towards personal improvement, as you would going through college. It's also extremely easy to become apathetic and let your life slip away when your goals are ambiguous. You need to become a specialist. A ton of people in my area are looking for AngularJS programmers. This is probably one of the top requested things recruiters were asking for. To really become a specialist though, you'd probably need at least a few months dedicated to making serious applications with AngularJS. The market could also fall out from under you as well, and suddenly your specialist skill isn't what people need anymore.

If you really need money, look for extremely low end jobs that have nothing to do with programming/tech and try to expand your role as the "tech guy" once you get there. Even putting something on your resume like "assisted co-workers with technical problems" and a few stories involving your problem solving skills in the work environment may get you noticed.

Go to user groups or tech meets in the area. Try to find out what people are working on, and make them aware you're available. Maybe you can pick up odd jobs.

Ultimately, if you really cannot find work and you are passionate about programming, swallow your pride, get loans and go to school(community college, then university). Even if you end up with 50 - 60K debt, you WILL be able to pay it off with a professional software developer salary. It's probably one of the most worthwhile investments you could make in yourself. Just make sure you network while in school, look for internships, apply for campus tech jobs, and develop a hearty list of personal and school projects.

There doesn't seem to be any local software related companies but I've looked into several potential options. I also know that Atlanta seems to have a lot more options available, and will be putting in some more applications to places in those areas as well.

If you really have other strong potential options to making money outside of software, then I'd suggest you do that now, and continue to improve your technical side in the meantime.

Success doesn't happen overnight unless you're extremely lucky.

When I was 16 my brother and I moved out, and I ended up in call centers for the next 14 years. I am only now getting out after working extremely hard over the last year to improve myself and my confidence. I avoided your typical educational path due to lack of confidence and fear of debt. In the end I wish I had gone the typical route, because the atypical route was harder, and even now I am not going to be making as much as could be.

I'd really suggest you look into options at your local college. There is likely financial aid and scholarships, and do not fear loans. Even if you just get a two year degree that might be enough to get you an internship at some big name company in the area, or even a full-time position. If there are no tech jobs in your immediate area, think about how you can move to an area where there are more.

Unless you really can show off your rockstar talent and persona, or that you've survived an office environment and held down a stable job before, it's probably going to be difficult convincing someone to take a chance.