By "STEM fields" you mean "programming". Or do you know of many scientists, mathematicians, or engineers (real engineers, not programmers) who succeed without a formal education?
In bioscience jobs there are definitely pipette monkey -> manager stories, and you don't particularly need much in the way of qualifications for the former.
I suspect he's pretending all STEM is programming though.
>I suspect he's pretending all STEM is programming though.
I am not. I would have said programming if I had meant it.
ETA: Ironically enough, I am a non-degree holder (dropout) working in a non-programming STEM field. My bio is a bit out of date since I have indeed gotten out of the data science community.
I suspect he's pretending all STEM is programming though.