You're hitting the job market at a particularly strange time. On one hand, unemployment is high and a lot of companies are conserving cash and not hiring. But, there's some evidence that tech jobs aren't as affected, so there's still a lot of demand for your particular skill set. Your only disadvantage is the lack of experience--and in a market full of unemployed programmers, that's a big downside. First of all however, don't assume that you will lose out just because you lack practical experience. Keep sending out the resumes and working your connections. Startups especially are hungry for young programmers. This is purely financial, since they know they can hire less experienced people for less money! But while you're hunting, look to gain some experience you can point to. A job hunt could take several months, and you can use that time to take on a few freelance projects on boards like Elance or guru.com. Even if they don't pay much, you can add that experience and a few references to your resume.