Sadly, I've made the different observation that (in my country, where university is free and academic degrees are worth their weight in gold) most developers wh

Sadly, I've made the different observation that (in my country, where university is free and academic degrees are worth their weight in gold) most developers who never went to university think of themselves as the lone gunman while lacking basics after 7+ years of experience. Bonus points if most of their experience is in nebulous freelancing. One of them admitted once that they didn't earn anything in his 2 years of "freelancing" on his CV. Of course, your mileage may vary. Good engineers are exceedingly hard to find in my country, much more so than in California.