Start out building some web sites in HTML5, PHP and Javascript with Netbeans. Learn some Java. Then, get the free version of Visual Studio and learn some C# and build some sites in that. If you find you enjoy coding and debugging / testing, then take some courses. Do some sites you can use for a portfolio to show potential customers.
As for bullshitting your way through interviews, I'm a programmer with 30 years experience and now at a Director level, so I'm the guy across the table from you at an interview. It will take me 10 seconds to figure out if you're full of shit. In fact I've probably made you write a test before you ever get to sit at the table.
If you want to try to freelance feel free but you're competing with 1,000,000 Asian people who charge $6/hr. The good news is they generally have some communications challenges, don't have high quality, and are in timezones diametrically opposed to North American customers. So if you provide good service have good references and sample sites, you can probably get some customers freelancing. I just paid a firm in India $1200 to do some work on the GLPI help desk system and it wasn't particularly a positive experience, I'd pay $3000 to a North American I can talk to on the phone and who understands a simple spec... I'm talking about work coming from sites like eLance.com versus locally obtained work of course. If you have some way to get in with a few customers locally all the better, I certainly started out that way.
Regards,
Mg
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