system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
what degree of knowledge should I know before applying for a job?

I studied programming on and off for 8 years for shits and giggles. It was very broken, but the last 6 months I've consolidated that knowledge into a fairly solid mass, with no holes that are obvious to me. I know c++ and python.

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My question is, how much should I know before I should start applying for jobs? Is the bare basics adequate, or do I need an advanced knowledge of the languages? Do I need knowledge other than just programming?

I've been advised that since I don't have a degree that I should build a bunch of projects to show what level of knowledge and fluency I have. How many and varied should these projects be? Should they be huge, complex applications? Should it be one large application or many small applications? Should they be put onto some app store or something, or is there existence adequate and I just send them along with the job application?

I don't mind having to learn a bunch more if I need to, but I would just like to know where the start line is. Thanks for all replies.
gpt
As far as projects go, I'd reccomend one pretty large and flashy project, supplimented by a sprinkling of smaller projects if you want to show breadth. A large project demonstrates an ability to plan and follow through that you don't really get in sub-thousand line projects. 

If you're just making them for resume purposes, open sourcing them on GitHub is the way to go. If it's mobile dev work you're doing, publishing might be good move, though the likelyhood of a recruiter actually downloading your app is hit or miss. 

As far as ability level goes, the bare minimum is probably language fluency, that is, given a vague description of a solution, you should be able to relatively painlessly translate it into code. Solving hard problems should be the hard part of developing software.