Same story. Got a commodore 64 when I was 3. Learned to read by playing computer games on it. (Project Space Station was an extremely wordy game). So I spent my childhood learning on my own. Didn't want 40k of student loan debt, and I was never all that fond of school anyway.
Anyway, after high school (1999), I moved to a bigger city and got a temp job in the accounting department of a company (data entry). Many of the tasks I was given were automatable, so I automated them. A role in Systems Support for the company opened up, and the head of the accounting department recommended me. I worked for that company for over a year before I moved back home, and was lucky to get an IT position at a company here which was helped largely because I had that one job of real industry experience. Fast forward to 2011 and I am now the IT Manager for a small manufacturing company.
In my case, it happened to all work out, and now I have 12 years experience, I am sure things will be fine. A couple things to note though: more and more jobs no longer say 'University Degree or Relevant Experience' and simply that a relevant degree is required. Also, I got paid less than I would have if I had a degree for years. I make a good wage now, and I feel that the lack of student loan debt has more than made up for a few years of below average pay.
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Same story. Got a commodore 64 when I was 3. Learned to read by playing computer games on it. (Project Space Station was an extremely wordy game). So I spent my childhood learning on my own. Didn't want 40k of student loan debt, and I was never all that fond of school anyway.
Anyway, after high school (1999), I moved to a bigger city and got a temp job in the accounting department of a company (data entry). Many of the tasks I was given were automatable, so I automated them. A role in Systems Support for the company opened up, and the head of the accounting department recommended me. I worked for that company for over a year before I moved back home, and was lucky to get an IT position at a company here which was helped largely because I had that one job of real industry experience. Fast forward to 2011 and I am now the IT Manager for a small manufacturing company.
In my case, it happened to all work out, and now I have 12 years experience, I am sure things will be fine. A couple things to note though: more and more jobs no longer say 'University Degree or Relevant Experience' and simply that a relevant degree is required. Also, I got paid less than I would have if I had a degree for years. I make a good wage now, and I feel that the lack of student loan debt has more than made up for a few years of below average pay.