[aqsis]

The only advice I can give is from my perspective as an employer at a large SaaS company recently. As CTO I was responsible for building a large team covering various skills, including a large number of software engineers. My experience led me to a position where I would actually favor candidates who had significant experience over those with academic qualifications. I have often found, not always but often, that highly qualified engineers need to be "retrained", as software development in the commercial world is (IMHO) a very different discipline to that taught in academia.

I should stress, that my experience is in very specific fields, visual effects, games, retail intelligence, VR, and this may colour my advice. It is entirely possible, in fact likely, that academic qualifications are more valuable than experience in other sectors. I would advise researching the nature of the sector you want to work in, if possible speak to various companies and agencies who specialise in that area, and see what the general expectation is. You may find that a lack of formal qualification might hinder you even getting to interview.

Summary, I personally don't feel that academic qualifications hold any particular value over experience, and strongly believe that someone who is motivated to learn themselves brings value in a different way to a business. But that might not be the opinion of every business or sector, so be careful.