As an employer, while recruiting educational qualification helps. Especially fresher level recruiting. In India, we get too many resumes for fresher openings. I

As an employer, while recruiting educational qualification helps. Especially fresher level recruiting. In India, we get too many resumes for fresher openings. It's not possible to interview every candidate. Even it is not possible to call every candidate for an aptitude test. What the Indian companies do? They set an arbitrary cutoff. Only people who have secured 60% in their engineering exam can apply. I am telling this as an entrepreneur who didn't get a graduate degree. I eventually started my own company with some of my other friends. But now when I need to hire I definitely look at educational qualification. It's an easy criterion to make sure that there are "less" chances of getting bad hires. I would love to give everybody a chance to qualify for a job at my company, but hiring has costs associated with it. But if you are really passionate about programming (or any other technology) and can build something impressive which other people in your age group can not do easily, then you shouldn't find it difficult to find a job without a degree. Generally, this happens via references. I got my first job like that. But I used to earn 1/4th compared to my other friends, who had good academics, in their first jobs. However, after a few years of experience, qualification doesn't matter much. Your ability to communicate and prove your skills matters much more. In the end, all your actions have consequences. If you want to leave education for your passion, be prepared to live with that decision for your life. As there will be long-lasting consequences (not necessarily all bad) with the decision.