I am a technical interviewer for a Fortune 300 Insurance Company.
I suck at AppDev interviews, because its not my background.
I am a Network Engineer, with Server Administration background prior to Networking.
I need you (the applicant) to demonstrate to me that you possess technical skills. I don't particularly care how you obtained them. If you know what you are doing, I am the least of your problems.
Human Resources associates are generally too unintelligent to succeed in the business operation, too lazy to attempt to develop any technical skills, and far too self important to admit to any of these faults. But they are crafty enough to have convinced the business that somebody needs to be in charge of hiring new people. So with their defective sense of what the business wants/needs, their bloated sense of self-importance and piles of recruiting budget they gather and collect as many resumes as they can find.
Then they go back to their posh and closely secured HR office space to filter through the resumes & applications.
If your resume doesn't mention a University at least as amazing as their's, you are obviously not appropriate for the company - trash.
If your resume doesn't contain every buzzword known to be associated to the industry or occupation you seek employment with, then you're obviously not appropriate for the company - trash.
If you don't possess multiple technical certifications (that I told them were optional or nice-to-have) you are obviously under qualified. trash.
There are ways around HR recruiters. Sometimes luck is involved.
A formal education (4-year degree) is a safe investment because it DOES make me happy, and it generally makes HR happy too.
A 2-year degree (Associates-level) plus a nice armload of professional certifications can be a successful approach to Server & Network jobs. AppDev tend to have very formalized recruiting and placement examination processes, so the 4-year degree tends to be the safer play there, in my experience.
I (the Technical Recruiter) might give you the green light for further interview, assuming you answer all of my questions reasonably if you have no degree, or just an associates. But you have to get to me through HR, and there isn't much I can do about it.