I graduated with an information systems degree about a decade ago, and no employer has ever given me any amount of money for that degree. I have never gotten a bonus or higher pay because of it. Now, I’m seeing so many videos on TikTok and reels lately of students who graduated with a computer science degree costing them upwards of 90K, And they are all packed any huge room with like 20 employers who are hiring for like 300 jobs but there’s like thousands of them…
So basically if you want a digital piece of paper that says you’re “educated”, you can pay $40000 > $350,000. But you’ll never get any amount of money for it from employers, it won’t help you find a job. It’s a myth
Early in my career I knew people without degreees who had managed to get in - once you’re in, you’re in. However their limitations became clear pretty quickly and I don’t believe you could break into the field today without a degree
Even beyond the fact that this is a highly specialized field where a degree is important, it’s a matter of scale. Every opening we have gets literally hundreds of applicants, all of whom have college degrees. We have to begin focusing on the most likely candidates somehow, so yes, no degree and you’re not even in the pile I see