Long story short, I got a bachelor's in CS roughly 4 years ago, burned out almost immediately upon graduating, settled for doing retail work until Covid came, and then kinda burned out on life in general. Only now have I gotten my life back into a good enough shape where I'd like to actually try to find a programming job, but I have no idea how to even get my foot in the door again after such a long time since my graduation. I've been derusting a lot in the past few months and have a few hobbyist projects under my belt so I'm not totally at square one, but I have no idea how to even start applying again in my circumstances. Does anyone have some advice on where I should even begin/things I should do?
Did you do any internships or work as a programmer? Are you still in touch with former coworkers or anyone from your degree program? Networking sucks but your best bet is prob to leverage any connections you've got and see if they're hiring.
You should also check wherever you got your degree from to see what they have in terms of career resources for alumni, they probably have some services that are vaguely helpful
Look into career fairs or similar events at your school. Many times it's normal for alumni to attend.
Look into computer science societies (or whatever is similar to Society of Automotive Engineers or American Institute of Chemical Engineers, etc) and network there. Hit up your classmates for job opportunities.
This will be easier if you've had some working experience in your field to know what you're talking about, but just lie on your resume and say you had been working that whole time in your sector (maybe put a 1 year gap on the resume and blame COVID so they know you're rusty or put the first 2 years as retail and the other 2 as x CS job). If you apply to entry level stuff and it's not related to what you lied on your resume about (but in the same field) then they'd expect you to not know anything about that job you're applying for, but it won't look alarming having been out of the field for that long. But 4 years is enough to be closer to mid level, so don't make it look like you know a bunch of stuff that you can't back up. List your recent projects too if you think that will help.
Oh and use your friends as references if you don't have any, just say they were coworkers. It helps if they were from your classes so they know what they're talking about.
Think of it this way, there's a high chance many places won't look at your resume if you didn't lie. But if you bluff, there's a good chance they're not going to verify your employment history if they've gone through the whole interview process. Just prove you are a good learner and open to taking a chance in this new sector.