This is not universally true, as someone who didn't finish college and is at a FAANG. I can't even remember off the top of my head which of others of my colleag

This is not universally true, as someone who didn't finish college and is at a FAANG. I can't even remember off the top of my head which of others of my colleagues didn't finish college, because it simply doesn't matter. There's more than enough evidence from the quality of work that people do to produce a rough ranking for who might get tapped for critical/high risk work; who went to college simply doesn't play into it in the least. That said, if you didn't go to or finish college, it's entirely incumbent upon you to fill the holes that you likely have in your knowledge. If you managed to get hired despite some glaring deficiencies in certain areas, then you're going to be in the bucket of people who get picked last for critical projects. That has nothing to do with your degree and everything to do with your skills, though.