[roadtoswe]

I know I should have framed the question in a less naive way. I did some very basic programming running some statistics before, and enjoyed the process greatly. But I would not classify it as programming experience in the general sense, it was more about thinking of the statistical problem at hand and using minimal programming to help. I would still classify myself in the "no programming or minimal programming" category, but I'm not oblivious to the industry.

[VirusNewbie]

ok, well assuming you're not naive, not jut chasing some prestige or money (because those are far from guaranteed), you have to learn how to both become a good software engineer, and how to interview. Too many people focus on the latter, not realizing that is only a problem if you're getting interviews.

To actually build up the resume and skills of the craft, I would invest and contribute to popular, widely used Open Source projects that have an active community, conferences, mailing lists and the like.

This will take a lot of investment, but having non trivial contributions to core software many companies use is often a better resume tick than an internship or experience at a no name company.

I had multiple well known, non FAANG big tech engineers invite me to come interview after they saw my contributions to some larger Open Source projects.

Then, passing the interview is another story, but there are many paid and unpaid resources to guide you through that process.

[roadtoswe]

Thanks for the advice regarding Open Source contribution.