Thanks for the comment. I'm under the impression that once you have your foot in the door so to speak, (a job that you perform well in) that a degree is for the most part a formality. Am I incorrect?
Networking is important there, since recruiting tends to be much more about buzzwords and degrees than hiring managers are. Being able to get your resume straight to a hiring manager can be make or break.
That changes if you're talking software jobs incidental to other industries (financial, corporate IT, etc.) which is honestly most of them, statistically speaking. It definitely changes if you're talking consulting or field work, since clients want to be impressed by your credentials and your parent company will select on that. It also probably changes if you're talking outside an area that's already heavy in software industry.
Rule of thumb: jeans ok? You can probably manage without the degree if you're good. Khakis required? Not so much.
What the degree buys you, aside from access to the more conservative jobs, is some degree of assumption that you have some degree of training, as well as that you have enough follow-through to finish a degree. But even then, speaking for myself as a frequent hiring team participant, I'd be looking towards your internships, side projects, that Github portfolio, so forth.
Still, if you have the luxury of doing so, get the degree. It does make things easier.
Until either of those two things happen, I will be contributing to open source projects and creating my own projects while working other jobs in order to boost both my resume and skill level.
Great reply, thank you for your perspective.