I can relate to that! (Score 1)

I just signed up to slashdot a couple of minutes ago, and I was immediately fascinated by this topic. Reason being that Im kind of in a similar situation. I have a Computer Science degree, graduated in 2006, and taught Computer Studies at a High School for pretty much the whole of '07. The jobs I got after that have been Database developer and Implementation Support jobs respectively. Similarly, I had tried to get programming jobs but employers were all looking for years of experience (even the ones that saw small projects I did). The thing is though I enjoy programming, work has been taking so much of time, that taking out time to keep up with personal programming is becoming impossible, meanwhile experience in non-programming jobs keep building up in my resume. I think all the suggestions so far are great, but can I for example, get programmer internship after over a year of graduating? Even then a lot of internships require the applicant to have "excellent programming skills" in language XYZ!!!!!