I’m not too familiar on how it works in the US but from my experience it’s easier to start at a lower position and move up internally, tech support or sys admin for example. But again, I’m completely ignorant how it is in the US, this is all based on Europe.

I never got a university degree but the position I applied to was junior sys admin and I asked for a pretty low salary. I worked a year there and made myself irreplaceable enough and looked for better offers to leverage that and got a raise along with a better position. That was like 10 years ago and now I’m in devops instead where I can do pretty much anything, including development, though I prefer sys admin tasks, with those I need to work like 4 hours a week if automation works as it should. Oh and never tell anyone you don’t have enough to do, that will just land you more work for no pay.