I'll also add that the first couple of years of my code reviews were a bloody mess. It's frustrating to have people who constantly out-think you and provide better ways of doing nearly everything you come up with. I was lucky to get my foot in the door and then built my skills up even more with a lot of pain and extra hours put it to get things right. I'm a better programmer now than I ever was, but I still have so, so much to learn and practice.

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry you had to go through that, truly, divorce is a traumatic experience unlike any other, but it does bring some solace to know I'm not the only one who's either been in or is in some sticky situations. Unfortunately I haven't been as lucky in finding something early on to build on. I was about a year and a half into my first position after diploma, and was laid-off, then terminated from my next 3 months in, then again, then again, then again. The only light in that dark being a decent python oriented thing in a research department. Reflecting on that, I might have been in over my head, too cocky as well, with really nothing to base it on other than a passing capability with programming and intense motivation to produce good results. But I was also in the wrong places that I wasn't well-suited for; a constant learning process that has taught me a bit about myself. Looking at the future seems rather bleak, as I'm sure you've felt many times, and I'm pretty much just counting on getting lucky at some point.

I am curious though, what were the more mechanical aspects of how you made that transition? Did you have a plan to practice algorithms in a certain way and then wait till you were contacted by the right recruiter? How did you go about it? Did you more simply just try and do 1 problem a day and then build that up, or did you find useful projects to apply more obscure algorithms to, that might be more interesting and motivating?

Mechanical aspects... I grabbed Cracking the Coding Interview. I started doing online coding tests. I started studying modern C++. I was fortunate that I had a relatively easy, 40 hour day job at the time so the nights and weekends weren't too bad. It took a few months. I interviewed with Amazon and it opened my eyes to how much I didn't know(Also, I am so incredibly glad I didn't get that job). I kept studying. I kept interviewing. I tried to think of things I would be expected to know. As an older engineer with a lot of Linux driver experience I had to refresh my knowledge of the Linux kernel's various subsystems. It was a lot of work. It helped that I've been at this game a few decades though so it wasn't like this stuff was exactly new. The algorithm stuff was, but I'd done a fair amount of Linux stuff, C++(but C++ pre 11), lots of C and Python... I wish I could say I still remember a lot of what I learned.

As far as interviews go, I think I tend to interview pretty well when it comes to social skills. Problem solving is tough. I had to do a lot of whiteboard practicing. I probably over practiced this part because, in my experience, you're not really writing tons of code on the whiteboard. Yes, you need to write some, but it's typically short snippets or pseudocode.

I remember telling my interviewers that I didn't think I was a good fit for the job. It seemed more 'CS' than I could handle. I don't know why they went with me. I know the company was rapidly growing at the time so I probably just got lucky. Not what you want to hear, I know.