I quit my EE studying in university.. can I still work in electronics ?

[nctnico]

but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

Unfortunately you are wrong here. Getting a degree means learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way so it gets finished on time. In my experience the people without a degree always seems to have more problems with doing things in a structured way and in some cases missing out on the math is also a serious hurdle.

[hermit]

It looks like the OP posted expecting affirmation that they did the right thing so this thread was never going to succeed because they weren't being told what they wanted to hear.

[hans]

I think degrees are useful for the majority of people. Even the ones we "neglect" here as not practical enough. They probably went into college completely green w.r.t. EE, CS or whatever other study they chose, and came out of college less green and more knowledgeable. They at least now have got a chance to build a career in a particular field.

I don't mean to sound like a bully or jerk, but I think IanB has an excellent point. It sounds like you're mad at how universities are set up , and now you're mad at how many companies employ people and that's it largely based on the median career path.

You say you have been self teaching yourself virtually all the things to know. Good! That's actually one of the top skills that is acquired in any degree. But again, IMO degrees are a good path for the majority of people. Doing it in another way is IMO "the hard way". You will be competing with people that are both autodidact and have a bachelor/master degree in the field of interest. For self-taught engineers I've seen varying levels of success, but the closest experiences I got with these people is they didn't really make it.. However these people didn't really tinkerer at home, so their bag of experience was competing with others that had education + hobby projects in the field.

Again this just my own observation/projection of correlations, but I will repeat myself: "the hard way".

Normally I would advise people to start their own business/freelance if they are self taught. This way you could avoid the formal qualifications part. But you do need to have like a portfolio of finished and polished projects to show off to clients that you're capable of the job. But also IMO it's also bad advice, as this should have been your own idea. You cannot just tell someone else that he should be his own boss - everyone should already do that to their own career. I can imagine you're not completely comfortable with this idea since you also need to support a family.

It sounds like you're focusing for web development at the moment. In my opinion, this has little relation with engineering and certainly does not require a degree to get you started in it. I did this when I was in secondary school, and it was fun while it lasted. Web development is one of the fastest paced (read: extremely hyped -- we change framework every 6 months) industries there is, so watch out you don't stick too long if you still want to chase an EE goal.

What web development did bring me, is the first few steps into programming when I was really young, and eventually switched over to software, embedded and electrical engineering. In terms of hands-on experience, I think I learned the most from my own projects. So I would certainly recommended having lots of those, and see where that can bring you.

[switch998]

I've read all the replies on my post, I can't touch on every one but I want to state somethings and correct some misunderstandings :
First thank's for everybody who tries to help me with giving me good advice and things that he learned from his life experience, even when this advice doesn't help me thank you for your good intention.
on the other hand there are some commentators that I have no heart to thank them, because I can't see the good intention there, for example people who would largely and so easily misjudge me or downgrade my abilities, it's hard for me to take what you say seriously because you got this important thing wrong from in the first place, I want to say to these people that they are NOT my employers, and that I would not like to work for employers like this.

Saying that a graduate of EE degree means that he can get the job done is very simple way of thinking, it's the big reason why I don't like how the world function in this matter, I understand of course that many if not most of the employers in this field specifically look at it this way but it's wrong assessment and very simplistic. Maybe you say, I'm not an employer and it doesn't matter what I think, OK..  but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

I know my self better than others do! and one thing I know about myself now after long experience in academics and self teaching and experimenting with these two is that I definitely learn much better with self teaching and self directed learning than the shitty traditional way of teaching in university, even what I learned in university was almost all on my own.
I stayed in university for long time DESPITE knowing that I'm not the type of person that fits with that model of teaching in order to get the shitty vain piece of paper only and because I'm stubborn, and not for learning or learning how to learn.. but I stated that there are financial reasons and family obligations that added salt on the injury and brought me to an impossible situation where it's not helpful to keep doing this, there is a limit for every person's patience and stubbornness, because we are humans.

Going back to university for finishing my degree is not going to happen in the coming near future, maybe after some years yes but I hope I wouldn't NEED to do that again and start all over from the beginning, it's impossible, thank you for those who advised me to go back and FINISH it, but this is not going to happen, even if it was a better option in general, but sure not in my case.
So I took a HARD decision to leave university, and loose the shitty credits that I gathered and are not all transferable, because it's a dump system.
I can though take courses online (from accredited or non accredited platforms) and maybe some courses in the formal way if they are practical and short term and not expensive, you know something reasonable that is not 4 years or even 2 years of same shitty way of teaching.

Now I hope things are more clear, the advice I'm seeking mostly is about what should I do next not about reconsidering my decision of leaving university.
I like electronics and I want to work in this field, the most helpful advises would be from people who have experience going this route and succeeding in it if there are some people here like that, or help me imagine a road map for the future in how to get to this goal, or showing me examples of others who did it and how. In the end those people exist I'm not talking about science fiction, take for example Jeri Ellsworth.

I know a lot of people have chimed in already, and I may not have much to add, but my perspective is a bit different so why not. I dropped out of school to start a company a few years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made, so I happen to agree with you.

In my opinion, the purpose of university is to spend a few years of your life bettering yourself. Whether or not you spend those years at an institution or elsewhere doesn't matter - as long as you are learning you can't possibly lose. And if electronics truly is your passion, then you definitely can begin working on projects your own enjoyment and experience... Go start your own business, engage with others, develop software or hardware in your free time; there's so many things that you can do to learn without college.

Nothing is holding you back from accomplishing your dreams other than yourself. You shouldn't worry about justifying your decisions to some internet forum, it makes me question your self confidence... and I think if you're lacking in confidence, you'd be better off finding a way to get the degree and just getting a job.

[b_force]

but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

Unfortunately you are wrong here. Getting a degree means learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way so it gets finished on time. In my experience the people without a degree always seems to have more problems with doing things in a structured way and in some cases missing out on the math is also a serious hurdle.

I have the opposite experience.
My experience with people with a degree is that they just only know just basics (if you're lucky), or actually not much at all (they were just good in studying).
The only ones who do well, are the ones that actually build hobby projects on the side (and not everyone does that anymore these days)
I know many people in the field who are excellent engineers without any kind of official degree.

Keep in mind that some people just have a different way of learning. That doesn't mean they are less smart.
To answer the question; YES you can definitely still work in electronics.
Unfortunately you need to prove yourself a little more, since a lot of people still think that a degree says something.

[Psi]

Without qualifications it cant sometimes be tricky to get your resume viewed by engineers at the company your apply for a job at.
HR will sometimes see no qualification and remove it from the short list they give the engineers.

So if you find yourself with no quals but a CV full of cool/impressive hobby experience then you might be better to forward your CV to an engineer at said company as well as the email in the job ad, which most likely goes to HR.
Assuming you can track down the email address for one of the engineers.

Is pretty common for HR to remove all the good engineers and provide a short list of crap ones because they don't know what they're doing and try to eliminate people with traits when those traits that actually make them good engineers.

[janoc]

Yes, sure. You can do whatever you want, of course. However, if you want to work within the system, you don't have a choice.

The system is a lot bigger than you seem to think.

I think I have been quite explicit which "system" I was talking about - academia, government funded research. If you manage to get a research position in a private company without a PhD - great, congrats. You just won a lottery or are an exceptional individual with a stellar track record where nobody cares about paper credentials.

But if you believe that this is somehow within the reach of the remaining 95% of people you are massively deluding yourself. The times where of Jim Williams and similar people who have managed to "wing it" without degrees because at the time it was rare to have one are long gone, these days your CV won't even get past HR unless you tick all the right boxes. 

[janoc]

I like electronics and I want to work in this field, the most helpful advises would be from people who have experience going this route and succeeding in it if there are some people here like that, or help me imagine a road map for the future in how to get to this goal, or showing me examples of others who did it and how. In the end those people exist I'm not talking about science fiction, take for example Jeri Ellsworth.

Of course they exist. And are rarer than hen's teeth. You have better odds at winning a lottery than trying to make a career in this way.

No offense, you most likely aren't Jeri. She got where she is today only by years of hard work doing odd jobs and constant learning since she was a teen, plus some luck at the right moments.  Look at her bio and compare it with your own. I would say that right now the only thing you two have in common is that you don't have a college degree.

[Louai]

but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

Unfortunately you are wrong here. Getting a degree means learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way so it gets finished on time. In my experience the people without a degree always seems to have more problems with doing things in a structured way and in some cases missing out on the math is also a serious hurdle.

Unfortunately I think you are wrong here, I've been more than 4 years in university and already got learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way even though I didn't finish my degree. also don't assume that everybody needs to go in the same path that you went in order to learn something that you learned, different people learn in their own way and take different paths and sometimes reach the same result. I already finished all the math classes in university in EE (except one) so I have no problem about math, you are not getting it, it's not just you but many others from their comments think that any university dropout is running away from the "Serious hurdle" , actually most likely going to do more serious hurdle outside university, but in a better way, more real, more fun and motivating.
getting a degree means nothing of what you said, getting a degree means only that you got accredited with a piece of paper. look around you will find lot's of examples to debunk every assumption that you assume about the meaning of degrees.

[Louai]

It looks like the OP posted expecting affirmation that they did the right thing so this thread was never going to succeed because they weren't being told what they wanted to hear.

I don't know what is wrong with you, maybe you have ego issues or problems with your self that you are projecting on me, your assumptions are silly and have no basis, I wrote in my previous comment and made it clear that I'm not arguing about my decision, neither trying to take confirmation, this is not the topic if you can understand English well! it's done already and it's the best decision for me now in MY case.. jeez why can't you understand this.
grow up

[jancumps]

It looks like the OP posted expecting affirmation that they did the right thing so this thread was never going to succeed because they weren't being told what they wanted to hear.

I don't know what is wrong with you, maybe you have ego issues or problems with your self that you are projecting on me, your assumptions are silly and have no basis, I wrote in my previous comment and made it clear that I'm not arguing about my decision, neither trying to take confirmation, this is not the topic if you can understand English well! it's done already and it's the best decision for me now in MY case.. jeez why can't you understand this.
grow up

seems you also have an attitude thing that needs to be worked on before you start going to interviews.

[Louai]

Again this just my own observation/projection of correlations, but I will repeat myself: "the hard way".

Normally I would advise people to start their own business/freelance if they are self taught. This way you could avoid the formal qualifications part. But you do need to have like a portfolio of finished and polished projects to show off to clients that you're capable of the job. But also IMO it's also bad advice, as this should have been your own idea. You cannot just tell someone else that he should be his own boss - everyone should already do that to their own career. I can imagine you're not completely comfortable with this idea since you also need to support a family.

What web development did bring me, is the first few steps into programming when I was really young, and eventually switched over to software, embedded and electrical engineering. In terms of hands-on experience, I think I learned the most from my own projects. So I would certainly recommended having lots of those, and see where that can bring you.

first thank you for your input , appreciated.

I understand I'm going to do it in the hard way , I have no problem with that , because the hard way in general is less hard for me than finishing the degree IN MY CASE.

Also of course I was thinking of building a portfolio of projects to show since I would not have "qualifications" except half a degree and accredited courses that I would take mostly online and the idea of stating business/freelance came to my mind but I would like to hear from you or others about that part more in detail and what kind of businesses are open and reasonable to get into or what freelancing areas, etc ..

me focusing on web development for a coming job is mostly driven by practical financial reasons that I can't avoid, but I want to keep my hobby in electronics, I'm interested how you switched from web development to software and embedded because this is an interesting field for me.

[Mr. Scram]

I don't know what is wrong with you, maybe you have ego issues or problems with your self that you are projecting on me, your assumptions are silly and have no basis, I wrote in my previous comment and made it clear that I'm not arguing about my decision, neither trying to take confirmation, this is not the topic if you can understand English well! it's done already and it's the best decision for me now in MY case.. jeez why can't you understand this.
grow up

I have to admit I was reading the same between the lines of your posts. The fact that you're so belligerent towards anyone with criticism adds to this notion. I feel we might be glimpsing some of the issues you've had with your studies.

If this is representative of how you approach things please reconsider your choices.

[Louai]

I walked out of a degree in year two, someone offered me a touring gig crewing for a rock and roll circus that looked like a lot more fun....

I sort of regret doing it, finishing the stupid thing would not have been that hard, but 20 somethings, what can you do?

I drifted around doing some software, bits of hardware and some event production stuff, then eventually wound up spending a few years as a junior electronics engineer in a small company, turns out that having a HAM ticket, being good at analogue and understanding impedance matching is sometimes a bigger sell then the velum, who knew? 
From there the fact that I understood microphones and how to do audio DSP properly got me a job in a broadcast equipment company (for >80% more pay), and these days I am having fun with audio (and hopefully soon SMPTE 2110 and 40Gb/s trancevers).

My job title these days is "Senior Hardware Engineer".

The real downside of not having the degree is that it makes getting hired by large companies a non starter, you will never make it thru the HR filters. The other downside is that you have to continually invest in yourself, my annual journal spend is in the thousands of pounds and my book spend is not far off.

The key to getting hired is to find companies that fit your expertise but are a little unconventional, if for example you have designed your own audio crossover networks and are not afraid of a smith chart then maybe a sonar transducer company might hire you for transducer matching networks for example. You don't need there to be lots of jobs, you need there to be one for which you obviously fit better then the newly minted local grads do.

My concern with you (Provided you could pass my first question "Tell me about something you have built", an excellent filter for junior staff), is that ALL jobs are 50% (on a good day) tedious tosh (Much like a degree), component obsolescence, design reviews, project planning, project status meetings, ..... And the tedious stuff is at least as important as the drawing diagrams and writing code bit.

The UK is also still I think a little more open to hiring the unconventional then the US seems to be these days.

Regards, Dan.

Thank you, very helpful advises

[Louai]

I don't know what is wrong with you, maybe you have ego issues or problems with your self that you are projecting on me, your assumptions are silly and have no basis, I wrote in my previous comment and made it clear that I'm not arguing about my decision, neither trying to take confirmation, this is not the topic if you can understand English well! it's done already and it's the best decision for me now in MY case.. jeez why can't you understand this.
grow up

I have to admit I was reading the same between the lines of your posts. The fact that you're so belligerent towards anyone with criticism adds to this notion. I feel we might be glimpsing some of the issues you've had with your studies.

If this is representative of how you approach things please reconsider your choices.

Don't give me behavioral advises, keep it for yourself, that is not required from you and don't make silly assumptions you too about me because it's easier to do it behind a screen. I don't need to please you or him or please your shitty interviews scenarios nor your ideal shitty managers, and your advise to me is not accepted, I'm open to positive advises even when they don't match my situation, any positive comment is welcomed, criticism is welcomed only if it's real criticism and built on real understanding not on imaginary assumptions that clearly show lack of respect. many commentators on my post who understood what I mean and gave helpful input, even when they had a different view than me.

[Mr. Scram]

Don't give me behavioral advises, keep it for yourself, that is not required from you and don't make silly assumptions you too about me because it's easier to do it behind a screen. I don't need to please you or him or please your shitty interviews scenarios nor your ideal shitty managers, and your advise to me is not accepted, I'm open to positive advises even when they don't match my situation, any positive comment is welcomed, criticism is welcomed only if it's real criticism and built on real understanding not on imaginary assumptions that clearly show lack of respect. many commentators on my post who understood what I mean and gave helpful input, even when they had a different view than me.

Again, you become argumentative and insultive when people don't follow your lead. Nobody here has provoked this by being unpleasant. There are good people here trying to advance your career by dispensing lessons they learnt the hard way, yet you cast them aside because they don't fit your narrative.

We're not making "silly assumptions" when at least some of your shortcomings are on display like this. You don't seem to realize that many people here have seem similar situations in the past. Some even overcame similar issues. People are trying to prevent you from making the same mistakes.

[Louai]

Another thing I wanted to make clear is that I didn't suggest working in electronics hands on with no understanding of the THEORY , or math , I already finished most of the math at university , and have no problem to study ON MY OWN or online courses any theory that is really needed for the subject, that's a different way of learning than universities, I never said I'm quitting learning and quitting the theory, a Degree does not equal Education. so I could bring the same education and even better than another degreed engineer would bring to the interviews so easily, I just would not be accredited with a degree.
Of course I understand that I should add to that a portfolio of my own projects since I would not be accredited.

[Mr. Scram]

Another thing I wanted to make clear is that I didn't suggest working in electronics hands on with no understanding of the THEORY , or math , I already finished most of the math at university , and have no problem to study ON MY OWN or online courses any theory that is really needed for the subject, that's a different way of learning than universities, I never said I'm quitting learning and quitting the theory, a Degree does not equal Education. so I could bring the same education and even better than another degreed engineer would bring to the interviews so easily, I just would not be accredited with a degree.
Of course I understand that I should add to that a portfolio of my own projects since I would no be accredited.

Okay, let's work with that. What projects are finished, what projects are currently in the works and how are you documenting everything?

[nctnico]

but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

Unfortunately you are wrong here. Getting a degree means learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way so it gets finished on time. In my experience the people without a degree always seems to have more problems with doing things in a structured way and in some cases missing out on the math is also a serious hurdle.

I have the opposite experience.
My experience with people with a degree is that they just only know just basics (if you're lucky), or actually not much at all (they were just good in studying).
The only ones who do well, are the ones that actually build hobby projects on the side (and not everyone does that anymore these days).

A few exceptions don't make the rule. You can't expect someone fresh out of school to have 10 years of experiecence but -yes- people who have electronics as a hobby or had good internships are ahead of the rest. However I disagree that good electronics engineers should have electronics as a hobby. I know several good engineers who have different hobbies.

[JohnnyMalaria]

a Degree does not equal Education.

But it is a fundamental reality that a degree is the primary key to open the door to your desired profession. Sure, it is possible to do so without a degree but it is highly improbable. It will seriously reduce the number of opportunities for you and, so, potentially (likely) take much, much longer for you to find a desirable position.

[IanB]

and have no problem to study ON MY OWN or online courses any theory that is really needed for the subject, that's a different way of learning than universities

I don't know what is different about the particular university you went to, but the tradition of universities in general is self-study. At university you are expected to spend most of your learning time on your own, in the library, reading books, studying, doing tutorial exercises, or working on projects, assignments, or laboratory exercises.

In fact, in that way university is a preparation for working life, since at work you are going to be doing much the same thing: reading books, researching, studying, doing experiments and analysis, everything that is required to finish the current project or assignment successfully.

[james_s]

Don't give me behavioral advises, keep it for yourself, that is not required from you and don't make silly assumptions you too about me because it's easier to do it behind a screen. I don't need to please you or him or please your shitty interviews scenarios nor your ideal shitty managers, and your advise to me is not accepted, I'm open to positive advises even when they don't match my situation, any positive comment is welcomed, criticism is welcomed only if it's real criticism and built on real understanding not on imaginary assumptions that clearly show lack of respect. many commentators on my post who understood what I mean and gave helpful input, even when they had a different view than me.

This is genuinely not meant as criticism but take a step back and try to read your post from a prospective employer's point of view, does it sound like someone you'd want to hire? It certainly doesn't make me want to hire you. Again I'm not trying to criticize you here, I'm giving you some honest input that I hope will help you have a better chance.

If you are interested in web development you might consider a 2 year degree in that, there are some rather good programs at the community colleges around here so there may be something similar elsewhere. If that doesn't interest you then I encourage you to look for some sort of degree you can get. Having *any* degree will open doors, and you need a foot in the door in order to get the experience that may later prove more important than the degree.

[Louai]

The situation now is like this : no way on earth I could finish the degree in EE now, and hence for the coming near future I'm going to try the HARDER way, by developing my hobby (including knowledge) into a professional level that could be employable or maybe enough for succeeding in business/freelance, I understand that in general it's harder, but that's still a better option to try in my case now, and my post was about that.
It helps to some degree to hear from you all about the probability of this to happen and to see your valuable experiences with that, it helps to understand the world we live in better, but I already knew it's less likely without a degree, I think there have been enough comments to make it clear that it's difficult to get in EE position without a degree. but  if 99% of EE engineers got there by a degree then I'm trying to succeed in doing it among the 1% who didn't have a degree .
So please let's be focused on how to achieve this goal under my limited condition and not by talking about hypothetical conditions.
There have been many helpful comments here that I appreciate.
I'm OK with hard work, even though I'm married but I don't have children and not planning to have so that makes it easier.
And maybe some of you are right that it's better to go in the direction of business rather than an employee so let's talk about that, who did it, examples, etc ..

[b_force]

but I'm correcting your thoughts about this issue so that hopefully you won't make the same simple assessment of someone's abilities just by looking at finishing his degree as a sign of "getting the job done" type of person, you can believe whatever nonsense you want though.

Unfortunately you are wrong here. Getting a degree means learning methods and procedures to get a project done in a structured way so it gets finished on time. In my experience the people without a degree always seems to have more problems with doing things in a structured way and in some cases missing out on the math is also a serious hurdle.

I have the opposite experience.
My experience with people with a degree is that they just only know just basics (if you're lucky), or actually not much at all (they were just good in studying).
The only ones who do well, are the ones that actually build hobby projects on the side (and not everyone does that anymore these days).

A few exceptions don't make the rule. You can't expect someone fresh out of school to have 10 years of experiecence but -yes- people who have electronics as a hobby or had good internships are ahead of the rest. However I disagree that good electronics engineers should have electronics as a hobby. I know several good engineers who have different hobbies.

As everything, it's all relative.
We had only bad luck with interns and new employees, as well as bachelor as university.
I guess the point is that the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The question was if you can get a job in electronics without a degree.
Yes you definitely can. Depending where you live, but a lot of times people don't even really bother if you have a degree or not.
That also depends if you can back it up with work experience.   

If the university is not your thing I bet these company aren't your thing either.

[RoGeorge]

OK Louai, it seams that you are very determined and don't want to reconsider your decision of dropping the school, against the overwhelming number of advises that tells you a diploma will be a great advantage. Let's get on topic and see what's to do next.

1. You won't like this, but you DEFINITELY need to drop the attitude that a diploma (and school in general) is shitty. School, in general (statistically speaking) is better than self education. There are exceptions, of course, but usually a diploma tells a lot. If you don't agree with that, no problem, but just keep in mind that despising a diploma is offensive for those who already have one. You don't want to go at a hiring interview with a despising attitude. That will instantly disqualify you, no matter how good you are. Confident, yes, despising to others (even if you feel qualified to despise them), definitely no.

2. Build yourself a portfolio of projects. Create a personal website, or at least a blog where to post your projects and nicely document those projects. In the eyes of your future employer, this will weight as much (if not more) as a diploma. Keep in mind that you are not competing with idiots with a diploma, but with other people that are at least as passionate as you are about electronics (except they have both the passion and the diploma). So, your projects must be outstanding and impressive. I won't advice for a video blog (or a youtube channel) because quality video production is incredibly time consuming.

3. Apply to jobs, then go to the interviews even if the job description is not exactly your dream job. At worst, you will gain experience at passing interviews. You can always refuse the job later if you really don't like it.

4. Be prepared to take some shitty jobs in between, totally unrelated with electronics or programming.

5. An alternative path is to open your own business. This is totally different than engineering in general, different from either SE or EE. You will need a totally different set of skills, like charisma, risk management, being a good leader, and most of all you will need STRONG CONNECTIONS, relations and friends, and first of all, A LOT OF LUCK.

6. Having a successful business is very hard work, and most of the time you won't succeed without an incredibly amount of LUCK and CONNECTIONS. You may want to research for yourself some statistics about how many businesses fail compared with how many manage to just float. Don't even talk about legends like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs! The probability of winning the lottery or being hit by a lighting strike is much bigger than the probability of having a similar success as they did.

7. I wouldn't advise for independent self employment or freelancer. This might help you to pay some bill, but use that only as a safety net. Usually this kind of work is not sustainable in the long run.

So, go out there, be prepared to confront with people that have the same passion and dedication as you have, and hope for the best luck.

Keep a positive attitude at all time, but be realistic, and never, never ever display superiority against "empty diplomas", or against any other people in general, no matter how good you feel you are, or how good you _really_ are when compared with others.

I wish you all the best!