The stories I find always have one thing in common: the writers "make it." They get the job, get into a Bootcamp, or launch a profitable sass app; whatever their goal may be, if they're writing about it, they've achieved it.Similar question asking for anecdotes here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/6w30de/for_those_who_travelled_down_the_selftaught_path/