I would echo this as well. When I started, I was still in high school (mid 90s) and the only thing they cared about was “make it work”.

Post college, it was about “what have you done?” vs “where did you go?” and so I demonstrated several projects I had done for the passion. A game engine. A graphics website community. Some novel networking libraries. A MUD. Finally, a database. By the time they got to the mud and database they were ringing me non-stop.

All of these projects done over a weekend or two while working other jobs to afford rent. Call centers are a personal level of hell.