At that time if you could upload PHP code to an FTP and it connected to a mySQL database you were a pretty rare animal. I mean, this is not long after PHP became a thing at all. Most important stuff was Java or Perl out there on the web. I also was very handy with photoshop, HTML, and cut up and layout. I've always kind of been visual first. I don't think I became a "good" programmer until I was in my late 20s but I've always had a bit of an edge in that I have natural design instincts and an inability to fully recognize that I can't do something.

Anyway, it was pretty easy to demonstrate that I had the chops for what they were looking for by showing them my websites on the internet and talking about my code. The insane treadmill of javascript frameworks was still a decade away. I still can't white board code any algorithms but to quote Rasmus Lerdorf (creator of PHP) "Yes, I am a terrible coder, but I am probably still better than you :)"

I know in our current culture this experience I'm describing could be seen as a good thing or some sort of mythmaking. It's not. It's a failure of the school and social system to take care of a distressed gifted kid.

EDIT: I just remembered that I started with Macromedia Flash before I got into PHP. I didn't understand what vector art was though so I made stuff with Paint Shop Pro and when things scaled they would be all jaggy. Lol. I think that was the real bullet for Neopets. That not only could I post a form to a database but I had flash chops... Wow. I have not thought about how much time I spent working in flash in a looooong time. I should see if I can find any of those works in my archives. I can only half remember two animations. I bet there is some fun stuff.