As a contractor and consultant I have worked with hundreds of programmers. Very few have CS degrees. The self-taught ones tend to specialise in specific tools

As a contractor and consultant I have worked with hundreds of programmers. Very few have CS degrees. The self-taught ones tend to specialise in specific tools and areas. It is very hard to maintain the discipline to be a self taught SE with equivalent knowledge to those doing a SE degree. A formal course in software engineering is not CS. SE courses focus on theory, principles, design, rather like other fields of engineering, e.g. mechanical or civil. A lot of programming is required for exercises and projects but the courses only cover languages and tools in passing. Of course, there are huge differences in how SE is taught in different universities.