I was mostly self-taught when I entered the industry. Years later, I now work for one of the bigger companies in Silicon Valley.

I want to preface this by saying that you do not need to be a CS expert to get started in software engineering. Do not buy into the hype. Sure, you'll need to know a few basics, but there are plenty of successful engineers out there who majored in quantitative / logical fields, who definitely do not know the equivalent of a CS degree's curriculum, and they're doing just fine. Indeed, there are a few successful engineers who didn't even go to college.

So the deep CS background is optional, but the following is not: are you the kind of person who enjoys and is good at solving puzzles? Will you persist after hours of bashing your head against the wall? You must have this character trait to succeed as a software engineer.

Assuming you have it, you should start with web development in Python / Django:

- The ecosystem is mature and beginner-friendly, meaning you can dip your toes in the water by using well-built, well-documented libraries that the community has put together over thousands of man-hours.

- The results of your programming will be concrete -- you can interact with the product, and find bugs, as a layperson.

- You can program something basic without any CS training. The libraries you will use to build your web apps will be leveraging plenty of CS concepts, but these concepts will be hidden away from you.

To learn Python syntax, there are a lot of different ways a beginner can go. I would recommend Code Combat for a complete newbie: https://codecombat.com/.

Once you have the basics of Python down, look for tutorials on the internet for building web apps in Django. Build simple web apps until you:

- Know how to think in Python.

- Understand the basics of relational databases and SQL.

- Understand the basics of HTTP / HTML / CSS.

Then, read a book on code craftsmanship, like "Clean Code," and reflect on how ugly the code is in your first few web apps. In the professional world, you'll be expected to adhere to standards of cleanliness and code organization, so refactor at least one of your web apps using the principles that you've learned from the book.

Only after you've determined that you can handle the above, you can start exploring the basics of CS. Harvard's CS50 is a lovely course, but there are more practical courses, for your purposes, on Coursera - namely Algorithms courses. I would recommend Princeton's Algorithms courses by Wayne and Sedgewick. Their courses are a bit less theoretical than the equivalent Coursera courses from Stanford, which is a good thing for someone in your position. I remember Sedgewick's instruction being very clear, yet rigorous. I believe the course requires you to learn basic Java, but given the programming experience you've built up to this point, you should be ready to dip your toes into compiled languages.

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This entire process can take as little as a few months depending on how sharp and motivated you are, and it's only a first step. At this point, you can continue your CS education if you're really interested in the field. But if you're looking to land a job ASAP, you're better off building up your portfolio, and making sure you really understand the basics of data structures and algorithms.

Furthermore, you should network at coding meetups. Look for a potential manager who is willing to work with a relative newbie such as yourself. I was lucky enough to find one early in my career, and it helped me immensely.