Actual data from the US: https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/goodjobsareback/ https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/goodjobsareback/ of the 2.9 million "go

Actual data from the US: https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/goodjobsareback/ https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/goodjobsareback/ of the 2.9 million "good jobs" (i.e. full-time, high paying with benefits) created since 2010, 2.8 million have gone to people with college degrees. It fun to say that you don't need a degree to get a good, high-paying, satisfying job, and there are plenty of anecdotal examples to reference, but the data clearly indicate that the odds are not in your favor if you choose an alternative path, at least in the US. I suspect that software engineering and some related industries might be a little more degree-agnostic, but that's far from the norm.