Great advices here, but still too much meta, in my humble opinion. Of course, marketing and selling yourself is an important skill but it is universal soft skill that's needed regardless of industry. I believe that in order to have a successful career in software development without a CS degree you need to:
Be passionate, love what you do. That's a must. Without dedication and having fun in the process you won't succeed.
Be open. Learn everyday. Learn from those who know their craft. Be prepared to continue to learn new stuff every single day for the rest of your life.
Stay curious. Question everything you or others do (even those you learn from). Learn from it (see #2).
Work hard. Hard and consistently. Hours and hours of work - it's called "practice" - make you a great developer, not CS degree or hundreds of hours of watched video tutorials.
And yes, if you're good developer with strong soft skills (negotiation, communication, reliability etc) - any doors will be open to you.
Great advices here, but still too much meta, in my humble opinion. Of course, marketing and selling yourself is an important skill but it is universal soft skill that's needed regardless of industry. I believe that in order to have a successful career in software development without a CS degree you need to:
And yes, if you're good developer with strong soft skills (negotiation, communication, reliability etc) - any doors will be open to you.
P.S.: I don't have a CS degree, of course :)
Thanks a lot for sharing your valuable advice. It also added few new points for me.