Last Post: 10:28:27pm, 02/19/2018
It's kind of supply and demand depending on the part of the industry you're trying to get into.
RIght now the demand is absurdly high. High enough that anyone who can make a website and say "React" or "Rails" fast enough can get a job. If you're ok working anywhere doing whatever, that's enough. You certainly don't need to live and breath tech.
Now, if you're looking for a specific job, in one of the more interesting companies, possibly for a higher hand position, it's another story. Most people you're competing with are there and/or at that level because they like the field. Possibly a LOT. There's no going around the fact that "practice makes perfect" and the more immersed in it you are, the better you'll be. Unless you're a natural born genius, you can't compete with someone who on top of their 40 hour job spends another 40+ hour on side project, open source, their blog posts, going to meetups, etc. They'll straight up be better than you. So they'll get the job if you're competing with them.
The demand is starting to be high enough that you can still slip in senior positions for some of the big tech companies without this, but it probably won't last forever. After the next recession/tech crash, most of the entry level position will get wiped off the map and senior engineers will be competing a lot harder. Could be in 5 years, 10 years, or not in our lifetime. Who knows. But it will happen sooner or later. This bubble can't last.
Basically, a lot of people do this for fun, and just happen to be paid for it as a nice bonus. You can't compete with that doing it 9 to 5.