He works for MS; I've seen his LinkedIn account(maybe you can forge that, IDK), and I was a reference for the job.
He has a degree in CS. MS wasn't his first job as a programmer. He worked for two fortune 500 companies before that(Walmart and Tyson if you have to know). And, I think he was using his skills behind closed doors while dealing weed. He's really intelligent and I think he was doing the weed thing due to insecurities about his self image.
I definitely agree about #2 though. I got out of that field about 12 years ago, and no way I could ever get back in the industry without taking several classes again. Burned. The. Fuck. Out.