What kind of companies are you trying to work at? I totally feel your pain. In fact many ATS's (Applicant Tracking Systems) often bounce 50% of applications without a human even looking at the app.

Hiring is hard on both sides. Many companies (understandably) need some way of filtering. That's why you shouldn't apply online or through job portals =)

The CTO of Stripe talks here about how he built a great eng team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zoq085zVhA

you can see that most are referrals vs. in-bound leads, with other channels in between.

What I'm getting at is that regardless of industry, you should do some of the following:

- contribute to the field you're applying to in other ways. Write articles, do side projects, etc. This will build up your reputation and experience in ways that a company can substitute a degree for.

- find people in the field and talk to them about what they're doing and what they'd find most helpful to study up on.

- take an internship or research position

- find people at LinkedIn who work at the company and meet up for coffee. Companies are definitely more amenable these days to hiring non-degree candidates but HR might be a bit behind the times. If you can demonstrate to hiring managers directly in-person that you're qualified, you can bypass a lot of these issues

- apply to startups / smaller companies. it's more of a meritocracy for sure and HR tends to be more hands-on.

good luck!

I last worked for a large company, I probably slipped through the cracks. But everyone hired after me were from big name schools.

Thanks for the advice. Since I am trying to find a new field, I will look more toward internships.

Even if you get hired somewhere, most companies will stop you from rising without a degree.

Financially stability is important, but you should also look into getting some sort of degree.

Build business networks and relationships that allow you to bypass the HR filter. A hiring manager or current employee who recommends HR talk to someone carries weight.