[cstrahan]

I've been in the industry for about 8 years now, and not having a degree hasn't made any measurable difference to my career prospects (in the long run).

Actually, it's pretty routine for a boss or coworker to ask me a year or two into a new job "hey, what university did you say you went to?"

My response: I didn't go to school.

Starting out though, it was a little tricky: I was making $27,000 as the sole developer at little photo-lab in downtown Dallas, TX. However, once you get a year or two of experience down on paper, and assuming you kicked ass those first years, not having a college education isn't a problem.