bitshepherd

Degree-less engineer here. It can be done, but you have to work hard. Your college educated peers will have a basis of classroom-based learning that you didn't get, and it'll hurt you early on. Once you get enough years of relevant experience, that degree matters less and less, but you still have to hone your craft more than your college educated peers.

If you want to excel without a degree, you have to build a reputation for being "the guy" that people go to when they get stumped. Is it hard? You bet. In my opinion, it's best to grind out some time at big name companies while you build your reputation. Don't aim for a Facebook or Google, because you'll get round filed quicker than you'll get an interview. Besides, if you get good enough at what you do, they'll come looking for you, with or without the pedigree.

source: I'm a degree-less engineer in the Bay Area with recruiters hitting me up on a daily basis.

bsd.io -- registered it for something like $120 at the time. It lapsed during hard times and the registration fees hadn't yet dropped. Now someone is squatting on it.

Having been running FreeBSD on laptops since ~2004-2005, I've had the best luck out of Dell laptops. ThinkPads are a close second, but ACPI is wonky on mine, resulting in being able to sleep but not wake up. Fun times when I need to be mobile. :)

As with most things FreeBSD, you'll have better luck not running current generation of hardware, but the previous generation, as support for the newest hardware usually lags a bit.

Birthdays? No, never.

Anniversaries at one company were commemorated by 1 year stickers that most people put on their name plate. Five and on were supposed to have more lavish rewards, such as a month-long sabbatical and so on.

One interviewer trotted out the old Microsoft "Why are manhole covers round?" question.

Another one asked me "how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

Both major gaming companies.

There's also wfh.io