I quit highschool and was force-fed some kind of formal education in the Navy. I think I have an associates degree of some kind? I dunno and I personally don't care if I do.

However, I built my career doing what I love and that was doing anything in IT... I settled on IT Security and just kept getting real world experience. Proving your skills and abilities can be a challenge at first, but its no different than anyone else fresh out of college.

Don't sell yourself short because you didn't go to college. I likely saved thousands of dollars and years of my life by actually learning and applying useful skills. Many people in this world have done the same.

College is not for everyone. As a matter of fact, I tend to stear away from candidates during interviews that have just memorized everything and don't know how to apply it. Case in point, I spent a week trying to teach someone how to troubleshoot a problem only to find out he had no idea how TCP and UDP actually worked. (I am a hands off teacher. I explain a problem and the concepts needed to fix it, but it is up to that person to do the leg work.) Sure, he could quote what he was told to memorize at school, but for many tasks he is basically useless. Ugh.

If someone reading this has gone to college and enjoyed it, awesome! Good on ya! You learn differently than I do.