I did the new Career in CS thing. Applied 2 weeks before classes started to the nearest state school, got accepted for a 2nd BS Degree in CS. Got my CS degree in 5 semesters, taking almost every course the department offered. I took more than I needed to, but specifically wanted to have a good internship once I knew what I was doing, between semesters 4-5.

Got an internship with a non-tech company. They seemed to like me, and I got a job offer to start in January after my last semester. Got promoted 4 times in 5 years. Its not big tech pay, but its very good pay for my very low cost of living area I live in.

Things are a bit rough in the software job markets right now, but in a year or two it could be very different. Also, remember that people complaining on reddit about struggling to find jobs are often doing something wrong. I was reading those same posts when I got my job offer.

(To be clear, I applied for 1 internship and got it. They were taking longer than I liked to get me a formal offer the next fall, so I applied to one other company, but got my offer just after the other company invited me for an onsite interview, and took the firm offer)