Qualifications
So, you want to become a coder. For most people, the first step on the path to this career involves earning a bachelor's degree in computer science (source).
Kiss that beautiful 4.0 GPA you earned in high school adios. Computer science is a difficult field; that's why so many kids elect to get a degree in English or political science instead. As a computer science major, you got to take classes with names like Introduction to Data Mining, Object-Oriented Software Engineering, and Autonomous Intelligent Robotics I and hopefully enjoy them.
Those are at least interesting. If you want a computer science degree, you have to prove you're capable of surviving multiple upper-level mathematics courses. Calculus I is just the beginning. You also have to take coursework in biology, chemistry, and/or physics. In other words, there's a lot of tough material you have to plow through for this degree and, no matter how bright you are, there will come a day where you will pull a C- in a class and count yourself fortunate.
There are other, more (or less, depending on how you look at it) traditional ways of becoming a coder. Some kids pick up the coding bug when they're young and teach themselves how to write software. Perhaps they code apps for the iPad just for kicks and some extra cash; maybe they hack into their school district's student database, à la Ferris Bueller, just to prove they can.
If you're one of those people who's been coding since infancy and you decide to go wild and get your undergraduate degree in, oh, economics or physics, you haven't written yourself out of a career in software. Companies don't just look for recruits with computer science degrees; there's a need for people who can think outside the box and bring what they learned in other fields of study to their coding.