The software industry basically needs man power and thus 50%+ less-knowledgeable programmers exist but that doesn't matter because the good ones are given the task to design solutions and overlook its development and maintenance. The ones without a relevant degree might not be good at low level programming and design (which is basically the foundation) but can do some high level tasks assigned to them such as writing libraries or manipulating databases or writing scripts or testing etc. Example Java programmers are high level programmers because Java itself is a high level programming language, which means it takes care of low level complexities and gives a foundation to build upon. Assembly/C/C++ programmers are low level programmers and they work on foundation software, for example, Java Virtual Machine is implemented in C/C++, most embedded systems are written in a combination of these languages, database systems, operating systems, device drivers, most graphics application, most AI, basically any foundation software is written with a combination of these languages. You either need a degree in CS or EE or you need to be self taught in the low level workings of a computer and software engineering methodologies (degree teaches all this systematically).

So you see if not low level programming one can at least can get in to high level programming and its because the industry needs manpower. After a half or a full century or two when AGI would be reality, there won't be a need for manpower as AGI would more efficiently handle all the rudimentary programming tasks and people won't be able to get in to this field without a PhD in a relevant area.

No it is not difficult. If you are really passionate about it, you can learn it and then get a Certification for it. Oracle has certifications for DB or JAVA EE. Zend offer certifications for PHP and the Zend frameworks ... so there are certifications. It really all depends on how committed you are to learning it. If you are passionate about it, you can succeed. Also for web development, Javascript, HTML, CSS, XML, AJAX and such are easy to learn because they are everywhere on every page. You just look at the source code of pages and then you may use Inspector or Firebug(Development tools for Chrome and Mozilla) to see exactly what goes where and what does what and play with them.

So it can be done, but you need to be organized about it. You must first get an idea of what you intend to do and then you need to get educated in that direction. Youtube has lectures and all sorts of tutorials that will show you the way. There are plenty of resources out there.

It is possible, but it will be harder. Education counts as experience--it shows you were at least able to do something and stick with it. It also shows, to some degree, that you know the concepts you were taught.

Your best bet would be to start making some sort of software--like utilities--and put them on your website. This could be your portfolio of you work. It would at least show potential employers you have the ability to make software even though you don't have a formal education in it.

You need to understand what's going on in the computer operating systems and software development world. Large and small compaies are moving to Open Source Operating Systems and software,

Check out these web links

http://lxer.com/

http://linuxtoday.com/

http://linuxfoundation.org/about/members...

Free online Linux programming courses.

http://training.linuxfoundation.org/free...

http://linux.org/categories/linux-tutori...

http://www.ownersguidebook.net/printable...

There you have it if you want to learn computer programming and get a high paid job.

I've heard an acquaintance who worked in insurance for 2 years got a computer programming job (his degree was in history and minor in econ.) and this was puzzling to me. Is it possible to get a job without a degree in that field?