Anecdote: I grew up in a poor family, that was single parent for my teenage years. I dropped out of high school when my son was born and I was 17. I never went to college. I was, however, a lifelong nerd and by mid-20s was able to get a foot-in-the-door job in IT. I'm 40 now and have been doing my dream job for almost 8 years. My current position was for a job that required a degree on paper. During my interview (all of them actually) I was honest about education, but also work experience and personal interest in the field, and got the position. That was 2.5 years ago and I hope to retire here.

I'm sure there was some luck involved, but just having a singular focus on computer adjacent fuckery, I managed to build a pretty successful career being 100% self taught.