moreso an infrastructure career path is def what i wanna do since that is the vast majority of what i have done in school. I know fosho for business analyst stuff they'll def want you to have a college degree.
I was looking at networking roles afew months back, to get a good feel on what aspects i should focus on to advance from help desk, and alot of the requirements to apply that recruiters wanted placed experience equal to or greater than having a degree. Then you got people in this thread making bank with high school diplomas or college degrees that have NOTHING to do with IT. What it entailed them doing was putting insane amounts of self study in themselves. Had me thinking twice on this paying for school stuff
But still, getting a degree would definitely help my future promotion opportunities, and being the first person in my family with one would def be dope.
At the end of the day you have to invest in yourself. Every degree you have typically substitutes 2 yrs of experience.
For example an entry level job may say HS Diploma and 4 yrs experience but with a bachelors it may say Bachelors and 2 yrs experience.
More senior roles may say HS Diploma and 8 yrs experience, Bachelors and 5 yrs experience , and Masters or equiv and 2 yrs experience.
Certs and degrees are all gate keepers, none of them tell someone you can do the job, but a recruiter will most def take the risk on someone with a Bachelors vs a HS diploma with certs. The market is not the same as it was in late 90s and early 2000s so you can't exactly go 100% off of what someone from that time did. Hell I graduated undergrad in 2011 and the market is different now than it was then.
With IT period the biggest thing is getting your first job and for me getting a degree was a better investment than making 8 bucks in a help desk job with only a HS diploma.
The people who do it right are those who Get the Degree AND certs AND the internship all at the same time. Self Study is just as bad if not worst than "school" if you ask me lol because at least school has structure and with structure you have direction. I rather get the degree get my first job and have my company pay for all my certs than to have a HS diploma making pennies AND have to pay out of pocket for cert study materials and all of those exams.
At the end of the day though what works for me might not work for you, but getting into less than 20k student loan debt ( you dont need to be at a school if you got to get more than 20k in debt for a bachelors and can't even earn grants) 3-4 times that is a no brainer.