My experience: just try to land a programmer job first, even if the company/job looks shitty.
I only had an Economics degree with no formal IT education and now I had a software dev job.
Like you, I was self-taught and only had built some personal projects, but it was enough to land me my first IT job in a shitty startup. And then you can have easier time finding other software dev roles.
Basically I just want to go somewhere to start fresh... not really career prospect/salary motivated.
London looks a good option to me because its english-speaking, I have relatives living there, I can work there visa-free (now its complicated due to brexit), and I love english football haha.