I think I accidentally overstated the coursera thing, I should've wrote that it will help make up for it, not definitely. My line of thinking was to show that I

I think I accidentally overstated the coursera thing, I should've wrote that it will help make up for it, not definitely. My line of thinking was to show that I may have dropped out of college but by no means have stopped my education, and as an added bonus I actually learn the kind of stuff I specialize in as it's not really taught in most colleges. For the first year I was absolutely dead set on not going back to school and was very ok with that. Though like you say, people being hired over me was indeed a red flag for me (this happened recently) and has definitely made me question what I thought before. Frankly I haven't really thought about the management positions that will come later, for my first year in the industry I'm doing well but honestly I don't know the management game at all. Much like the OP, I looked at this situation as a way to 'get ahead' but looking at who I work with and talking to them I question how much it would really give me an edge. On the other hand I think I would have an edge getting my degree, and already having a couple years of practical experience. So for now I don't regret taking the job and dropping out regardless of whether I finish the degree or not. I do know that a degree typically isn't a sign of knowledge per se, though I've been hearing more and more that tech companies are putting less of an emphasis on using a degree as a card to be played. So on that front what I'm really trying to figure out is if that trend will eliminate that as an obstacle later on, and I've heard it go both ways. I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on this especially going forward into the next few years. Reading a lot of these answers is pointing me in the opposite direction, but like I said above, worst case scenario I've take a couple years off of school.