Hopefully not a completely ignorant question

[Dave McLelland]

I think the problem is getting your first job. You may have the necessary expertise to program in C++ but you have to get to the interview in order to demonstrate that. It depends greatly on the type of employer and kind of programming you want to do.

Check out some of the recruitment sites, look at the jobs and see what sort of skills/qualifications they require.

A large employer may place more emphasis on qualifications, whereas a smaller younger company might be prepared to interview candidates who have come into software via a more unorthodox route.

You need to convince a potential employer that you could do the job (before they will even interview you). Unfortunately the "hobby" image would worry me as a recruiter. Hobby programs and commercial strength software are vastly different in their scale and complexity.