12 yr club here 👍

It’d be an uphill battle but if someone got into programming via free online courses they could build a resume via collaborating with projects on github. It’d be a way to prove skill without the diploma.

Advice goes the same for anything where you can build a portfolio to demonstrate competency, most people in industries just care about results. This could be photography, graphic design, a physical labor like wood working etc.

Sucks because you’d have to outlay time upfront before maybe getting payed though. Ymmv