crackaton said:
I already have degree. Had it for years. Perhaps I need a bridging course.
I'm not qualified to give advice yada yada yada. What's worse, I hated my last 2 years of employment in the industry, and I've been out of it for 5 years and have no wish to go back. But if you got in front of me when I was a hirer, I'd look for evidence that you were serious about getting back into the field.
The big worry in my mind would be that you wouldn't stay because you couldn't take the industry as it is now. You would have to convince me that you understand what you're getting into and that you think it's worth it, as well as convince me that you can do what I need done as fast and as well (note the sequence - that's one reason I won't go back) as someone who stayed in.
Since you have the degree, I'd probably be more impressed by work you'd done for fun or for free than by additional non-specific courses. I'd get you to talk about it - why you did it one way and not another, what you'd do differently now and why, what you learnt from it (and there'd better be something, even if it's not a technological something - I'm looking for evidence that you expect to keep learning). I'd be particularly impressed by joint efforts and I'd get you talking about how you divided up the work and how you ensured consistency of interface and standards. And I'd be profoundly impressed if you'd actually documented your design and your code - except that I'd probably think you did it after the event.
I think you could treat getting a job in IT like a development project starting with user requirements, where the users are people with hiring authority. I've given you a starting point; you need to use your own imagination back it with some solid research into companies that you'd like to work with. Learn as much as you can about their customers, their markets, their technologies and their businesses. This might be difficult and should be a continuing process throughout your career, so set yourself a time limit for starting to contact them.
During this preparatory stage, do the best resume you can, concentrating on what you have to offer those particular companies. This will involve several drafts because it's worth getting the resume reviewed by as many people as you can find who will look at it from the perspective of hirers. Developer mates are useful too, but you
must get the view from people like the ones who will use the resume to decide to see you. You might well end up with multiple final versions (e.g. long and short). If so, be obscenely careful about keeping them all current and consistent.
Contact the person in your chosen company that you think you'd be working for. Your goals are to get yourself known *and* to get feedback from them about what they're looking for. Many will need certain qualifications to meet company requirements - the sort of things that can be ticked off in databases. That gives you information about where or if to spend your personal education dollar, or a negotiating point, or at worst a reason to get in touch again when you have something new to show them.
Persevere. Or leave IT in your past and enjoy the present. There's an old saying about how you can't step twice in the same river.
Good luck, and please remember that I'm completely out of touch with the realities of corporate employment.
Ghoti