Not only proving to companies what you know, but knowing what you know yourself: "I think for a long time I wanted to work at a company and do software development in a professional setting. But that was a really big stressor for me, because I've never really known how much I know. I assume that if I had gone to college and gotten a computer science degree, I'd know that I know about as much as the other people who also went through the course. And if I looked on LinkedIn and saw what jobs they were getting, I would know, Okay, that's about what I should aim for. I know about where I am. That was a huge barrier before when I was applying for jobs on my own, not knowing what my skill level was. I never knew how to present myself. I knew I wanted to write software in a professional setting, but I just didn't know how to get to that point."