In Switzerland it's common to start an apprenticeship after 9 years of school if you have an idea what you want to do. Turning just sweet sixteen I did one myse

In Switzerland it's common to start an apprenticeship after 9 years of school if you have an idea what you want to do. Turning just sweet sixteen I did one myself as an "Application Developer" in the airline industry. This lasted four years and gave me some kind of diploma - not exactly a degree in CS, but I gained enough experience to get a well paid job with some responsibilities afterwards. During the apprenticeship the salary is more or less symbolic. Now at the age of 30 I've almost 10 years of experience in the real world, and never had any debt to pay off (although higher education is also very affordable in Switzerland). The nature of software engineering (e.g. contributing to open source projects, learning by doing, etc.), a sense of responsibility and a natural hunger for wisdom is in my experience enough material for a good position. Many of my friends, including myself, never did a bachelor or master degree but became great engineers and project leaders nevertheless. What often matters more than deep theoretical understanding is actually doing things such as dealing with pressure, deadlines and customers, getting along with a team and solving complex problems in an pragmatic way, because that's what actually happens in most of the jobs. I don't say this is the better way to go, instead I want to say that having a certain academic degree should not be seen as the only promising career path.