I took my first software classes 2 years ago at the University and HATED every second of it! That summer I landed a co-op where I spent 6 months (I was invited back to mentor) learning Ruby on Rails and related technology. During that time, I tried to throw up as many apps as I could for practice. Thos included Rails apps, Cordova apps, JS apps etc...Those 'practice apps' landed me my first starter position making the industry standard for a rails dev with 2 years or so of experience. I am learning WAY more now then I ever thought I could and have built a hell of a resume over the past year with real world experience. Online tools got my foot in the door. A year and a half later, I am making an honest living and developing features that I thought would take me years to master. I started with a single GOOGLE search...For me, it was a mix. The experience of the co-op was the driver to what I have today though.