Which is pathetic for the CC, honestly. Python's doable because it's *free* just like Java was then- and worse, you didn't need VS to do C++...
Dev C++
With MinGW or Cygwin, Eclipse
Sure, it didn't have some of the glitzy stuff MS was shovelling- but you could have pretty much done Windows or Cross-Platform C++ development back when Java was the big rage at the Community Colleges. And this doesn't even get into them doing Linux for all of it, including Java, Python, etc... They're guilty of some of the same mentality that spawned the notion that these idiot "bootcamps" are a good substitute for a discipline or vocational education. The problem isn't quite the thing Mike Rowe's fingering on this- but he's close enough to not disagree at all. They're guilty of trying to strip-mine all the students for all the money they can. Actually teach something? That's too much into our "BoM" on those grads we're pumping out.
Part of the reason you had problems getting a gig was that they saw the "cookie-cutter" Associate's degree and passed on that. You've nothing to offer except coding for them at that stage, regardless of whether that's true or not- because that's the only metric they've got to go off of. If you actually have ability and can pick up the Engineer's trade, you should get the rest of the BS degree you should get (which won't assure you the job...little will, honestly, unless you've got 2-3 decades of the bleeding edge, self-taught through the school of hard knocks...but it'll HELP, all the same...) and work on teaching yourself any gaps in anything they didn't teach you on your own. There's always something that they won't/don't teach you. You have to learn it on your own. Whether it's C++, OOD/OOA, or the like, you're going to have to be able to grab the ring yourself repeatedly to keep employed. The reason they passed on you is the AS degree- because of the "pathetic" I opined on at the beginning. They're not teaching a trade. They're honestly not teaching a good base to work with at most Community Colleges these days. They're teaching you the in-vogue stuff right then (You shouldn't be learning VS, you should be learning C++ which doesn't really and honestly give a tinker's damn where it's being implemented if you've done it right... You shouldn't be learning Java just because the College is too cheap to get proper Windows tools (which, again, is PATHETIC because the tools have been "there" within reach for nearly 20 years...). You shouldn't be learning Python because that's the big main big-deal in dynamic content websites in there with Java and PHP... You get the idea...) In all honesty, it wouldn't endear you to me if I were to hire help with either my Game Porting interest or my Agritech one. In the former, I'd need a self-starter that understands C and C++. They'd need to be adaptable to pick up Lua if they didn't already know it. They'd have to be able to debug code on X86, ARM, and MIPS. The requirements for the Agritech business I'm starting...are similar in nature, along with "getting" embedded coding. That's the kinds of jobs there's currently work for that's sustainable. An Associate's isn't going to help you there unless you can show you putz with that stuff already and can prove you might grow to fill those shoes in a 6-18 month timeframe being allowed to do it. The same goes for a "bootcamp".