How I Got Into the 95th Percentile of Earners in My Country at 22 Without a University Degree

My Background

I initially attended a Computer Science university, but most of the subjects were unbearably boring. I wasn’t used to studying in high school, so my lack of interest made university even harder. However, I did enjoy one subject—programming in C. It was challenging because I lacked any foundational CS knowledge compared to my peers. Setting up the environment, compiling, and running the code was frustrating, but I found it fascinating that I could write some letters on a screen and make the computer execute tasks flawlessly (if I avoided bugs, of course).

At some point, I stumbled upon a YouTube video of a guy who taught himself to code within a year and landed a high-paying job. That resonated with me because my reason for choosing CS was simple: I wanted a great salary so I could work for a year, save up money, and try startup ideas. If they failed, I could repeat the cycle until something succeeded. I was risk-aware and wondered whether this guy was just lucky or if others had done the same. I found dozens of similar self-taught success stories, mostly from the US, which made me question whether the same path was viable in the Czech Republic.

I checked job portals and found that roughly two-thirds of job listings stated, "university degree or equivalent experience." That made it clear that getting the first job would be tough, but after that, no one would care about my degree.

Committing to Self-Study

I decided to drop out and teach myself. Almost everyone in my family and friend circle thought it was a terrible idea—except for my dad (shoutout to him for believing in me despite not being able to assess whether it could work). I even made a bet with my stepdad that I would be earning 50K CZK per month (a bit over $2K, which was a solid salary in the Czech Republic) within a year.

I asked my dad if I could live with him for that year, and he agreed. I moved in and started learning. COVID hit, so I had plenty of time to study 5-8 hours daily, and I also played a lot of darts. I even did construction work on the side to earn some money.

The Pros and Cons of Self-Study

Pros:

1. Personalized Learning – I could choose the most engaging learning materials, saving myself years of useless studying.

2. Curiosity-Driven Learning – I hated learning for the sake of it, but applying new knowledge to mini-projects made it enjoyable.

3. Job-Oriented Approach – I focused only on what was necessary to land a job, knowing I’d continue learning on the job.

Cons:

1. Loneliness – Without peers, self-study can be isolating. Luckily, I had two programmer friends to ask for advice, though they were so smart that I initially thought coding was only for geniuses.

2. Self-Motivation Required – Unlike university, where exams and deadlines push you, self-learning demands discipline. I stayed motivated because:

- I had worked part-time jobs and hated them, so failure meant returning to those.

- I had a bet to win.

- I wanted to start businesses, and having a high-income skill minimized my financial risk.

My Learning Plan

I researched various programming roles and chose frontend development because it provided visual feedback, which made progress more tangible (changing a button’s color from gray to red felt godlike at the time).

I followed this structured learning path:

- Roadmap: Frontend Developer Roadmap

- Interactive Learning: freeCodeCamp for HTML & CSS

- Computer Science Foundations: Harvard’s CS50 – the most engaging course I’ve taken

- JavaScript: Basics from freeCodeCamp, then in-depth concepts from YouTube videos (watching multiple explanations accelerated my learning)

Building Projects

Theory alone isn’t enough, so I built ~8 projects over 8 months. You can check them out here. The designs were terrible, and the code probably was too, but I was proud to be creating.

My first project was a random dog generator. I fetched dog images from an API using a random ID and appended them to the DOM. I didn’t care about image sizes, so it looked awful—but to me, it felt like magic.

Projects mattered because I needed something to show employers. After ~9 months, I began job hunting, sending out a few CVs daily. Within a month, I got ~5-6 interviews and landed 2 job offers.

Landing My First Job

Funny story—during my first or second online interview, I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I assumed the camera only showed my face. Turns out, I was wrong. When I later asked for feedback after being rejected, HR said the manager thought I was "giving off hotshot vibes" and that it was unprofessional. Lesson learned: first impressions matter.

I had two job offers:

1. A software company offering 42K CZK as an external contractor

2. A body shop with a startup project offering 30K CZK, increasing to 35K CZK after three months

I chose the second option because I believed I could qualify for a government grant that would supplement my salary to 50K CZK. Unfortunately, HR later informed me that the grant wasn’t possible, so I lost my bet. However, I learned a lot and enjoyed my work.

I spent a year there, working on DecisionRules.io, a SaaS that allowed non-developers to create decision rules via a web interface, reducing developer workload. I implemented features like rule tagging, audit logging, event timelines, import/export, and OAuth integration. I even started refactoring a poor architectural decision but quickly learned that startups prioritize speed over perfection.

Pursuit of a Higher Salary

I realized my salary was low compared to market rates. My boss offered to outsource me to one of the largest banks in the country, increasing my pay. I passed the interview and joined a project developing a voicebot for customer support. My salary increased to 46.5K CZK.

During a company event, coworkers asked about my job, and I mentioned my salary. Later that night, I found out my employer was billing the bank 8K CZK per day for me but only paying me a fraction of that. The bank’s PO, surprised at the low pay, offered me a direct contract, raising my salary to 76K CZK—a win-win situation where I earned more while the bank paid less.

The Aftermath

My boss wasn’t happy. While I understood the company wanted to recoup their investment in me, I didn’t expect such hostility when leaving. I wasn't even allowed to return my laptop in our office because I was told that my boss doesn't want to see me. Not sure whether it was true, I suppose the main motivation behind that was preventing my collegues from asking why I'm leaving. If it was actually true, I'd be quite disappointed. I guess, I'll never know.

Final Thoughts

The Czech Republic offers strong opportunities for those willing to put in extra effort. The vast majority of the people I have met in my jobs were there 9-5 and didn't do any extra work. I was working overtime and even after work, I was learning new concepts and technologies. The first three months before moving to Prague to a flat with 4 roommates, I was commuting everyday for 3 hours and still managed to work extra hours. I cannot speak on how it works in other countries but if you have the work ethic and slightly above intelligence, you can succeed as a developer.