I'm a Toronto dev. Last interview I went to (at a startup) I was interviewed by a high-school kid, who was picked up by the startup off the strength of his GitH

I'm a Toronto dev. Last interview I went to (at a startup) I was interviewed by a high-school kid, who was picked up by the startup off the strength of his GitHub and portfolio. I never got the job (had a freshly minted degree at the time from the best university in Canada, with a plethora of side projects too). If you have an extensive portfolio you will do fine in my opinion. Yes, contracting exists but I don't have a lot of experience with it personally. I also have a friend who went from doing low-level microcontroller work to working in finance. Financial industry might be tougher to break in to without a degree but if you know somebody there (as is typically the case with these things) and you score an interview you will be on an equal playing field with the devs with college degrees (again IMHO). EDIT: A good thing you parenthesized London with (UK) as we have a London in Southern Ontario not too far from TO.