When I dropped out in early 2012, I felt like my life was over. I felt I was gonna be stuck working minimum wage and living in my parents' spare bedroom until

When I dropped out in early 2012, I felt like my life was over. I felt I was gonna be stuck working minimum wage and living in my parents' spare bedroom until they or I die. In one day, I applied to a ton of minimum-to-slightly-above-minimum wage jobs, stuff like McDonalds, Lowes, Aldi, Walmart, Burger King, Starbucks, etc. As a bit of a laugh, I also applied to a software engineer job I found on Craigslist, for no other reason than "why the hell not". None of the minimum wage jobs called me back. Not a single one! You know who called me back, and eventually made an offer? The software engineering job. After that I realized something; in a bizarre bit of logic, the less qualified you are for a position, the more willing a company might be to overlook a lack of qualifications. Demand simply exceeded supply for software, and despite the fact that the job posting had a "strong requirement" for a bachelors in Computer Science, they simply didn't have enough applicants to be picky, and thus they hired me, since I more or less knew how to program. So many jobs that "require" a degree simply don't. If you can prove that you know what you're doing, that's usually good enough. Obviously there are sometimes legal requirements that require a degree, but those feel like very much the exception.