[coroxout]

HR definitely have too much say in IT hiring in many places - I suspect many CVs go in the bin for not matching the exact acronym or buzzword on HR's list, when any technical person would see extensive experience of the same or highly related technologies just listed under different names.

I am a little biased as another dropout but many technical job adverts here in the UK not only specify a degree but that it must be at least a 2:1 from (whatever HR/the manager thinks is) a "respected university"!

5 years ago I applied for a technical support job at an extremely low salary (I was relocating and applying for anything I saw) and got a phone call saying they'd got my CV but needed to know if I had a degree. I'm sure finishing my degree in formal derivations of algorithms would have been highly useful for a job crawling under desks looking to see if any cables had fallen out. Luckily in the month it took them to phone me and ask I'd found a much better job.