One Caveat: I was an Army Reservist. I did basic at Ft. Leonard Wood in the summer of '95 and AIT at Ft. Meade (DINFOS) in the 2nd 1/2 of '96. I spent 13 months on active duty back in '03-'04, including a 6 month tour in Iraq. (Baghdad attached to the 1st AD) I was a 25R, but did 25V work while there. I got out after that.
Anyhow, I did study CS in college, but I never did finish a degree. Truth is I was a terrible student learning under a traditional setting, but I did do well learning on my own. I also tended to hyper-focus on Math and CS and ignore all my other classes. (Wasn't good for my GPA.) For Math classes I would show up for the first two weeks, meet some people in class, and try to show the professor that I could handle the material. At the end of those two weeks, I'd ask the professor if I could be graded solely on the mid-term and the final, skip class and study on my own. They always agreed. I worked out similar deals with CS professors (but those also came with projects, so I had to show up a little more often).
The last full-time semester I spent in school (Fall '97) I was taking "Intro to Probability and Statistics for Engineers." During the first two weeks I met a friend, Mike, in class. He was already working for a SW Company. I was waiting tables and parking cars (valet) at the time. After the first two weeks, I had my usual talk with the professor. I would skip class, go to the library, read the chapters as listed in the syllabus and work through proofs. Then I'd do a few problems from the chapter I was reading (the ones where I could look up the solution to check my work). When I showed up to take the mid-term, Mike was surprised to see me. But I took the test and showed up for the following class to pick up my mid-term and see how I did. At the end of class, Mike figured I'd failed and wanted to gloat. Mike had an 89 or sometime like that. I'd aced the test. He was incredulous and asked how I did it. Then he asked if he could study with me. After a few more weeks word got around via Mike that I was tutoring and that I was teaching the class better than the professor was. I charged $20/hr to 3 more people so they could study with me. By the time the final rolled around we were all very well prepared and all did very well. I think I got one problem wrong, based on transposing two numbers or something like that.
Near end of the semester Mike asked for a copy of my resume. I didn't have one, but I wrote one up. It had the words "Bennigan's" and "Pizza Hut" on it. I got a call the next day from his boss. He asked when I could start. I said my final's end on the 18th. He asked if I could start on the 19th. I said yes. I'd landed an $10/hr internship at a network security company. After 3 months they asked me if I wanted to come on full-time and salaried. I was offered $36k/yr with benefits. Within 2 years of that I was making $85k/yr. What followed has been years of paying dues, constant study, and building on my career. (As well as that call up to active duty.) I make closer to $190k/yr now.
About 4-5 years ago my wife, fresh after completing her PhD, wanted to do a post-doc in another city. I got a few job offers in hand and told my boss I was going to quit. He offered me a promotion, raise and remote work instead. I've been working from home ever since.
TLDR: Impressed a classmate, got an internship.