Well you are an inspiration for others. Can you share some useful knowledge so others can benefit from your experiences?

I can summarize my path. Ages 12-20, wrote code every day. Took a QA job at a small software company. Moved to development team. Spent 6 years there. Used that experience to get into Microsoft. 5 years there. At that point, there were almost no companies that wouldn’t interview me, and it was just on me to do well in the interviews. I have practiced white boarding all through my career.

So the idea is to get your foot in whatever door you can at that time, and climb when you can.

Thanks for your input. Highly appreciate

With 23 years in industry, you were joining back when CS degrees were less common.

This is like the "boomer handshake" meme. Nowadays you need a degree.

I used to work with a guy who dropped out of a gamedev course at a second-tier university. Graduate SWE at a respectable/selective company and all.

Admittedly, this was at a company with about 500 employees and 1 part-time HR person (who quit 6 months later and wasn't replaced).

I started in the industry 7 years ago without a degree and am doing well.

do you think it's possible to work at companies like amazon and google without a degree at all?

Sure, Amazon has jobs in it's warehouses :p

Yes, I know a number of people who have

I do