I think it really matters when looking for your first professional job. Some formal education shows that you have at least the commitment and self-discipline t

I think it really matters when looking for your first professional job. Some formal education shows that you have at least the commitment and self-discipline to achieve a goal. If not, you should be able to show off some professional work that you did (and you are able to demonstrate that YOU did it), which could be a problem if your expertise is something like, say, embedded software, and not frontend web developer. After a couple of years of demonstrable experience, it should really not matter, although some of the more established/formal companies might still be looking for people with degrees (for reasons unknown to me).