Already a software engineer, degree worth it?

[mahaganapati]

No, you don't NEED a tech degree or a degree at all, as OP has already proven. But if you know you want to remain in tech and yet you pursue a degree in anything else, you're just making things more difficult for yourself later on. The question isn't whether you can find jobs with a non-tech degree (you can), but whether the quality and number of job opportunities increases if you have a STEM degree. Which they do.

Portfolio comes above degree a lot of the time. (At least for now.) But, if you're against an applicant who is more or less equal to you except they have a STEM degree and you just have liberal studies, guess who wins? It's probably not going to be the guy with the liberal studies degree.

Why hamstring yourself if you don't have to?

The chances of which degree someone has making the difference in choosing between 2 people is not going to be high.  If it comes down to 2 people, they are just not going to look at the degree, as it will have zero relevance.  If it doesn't even matter IF you have a degree in the first place, then it won't matter if you have whatever degree you want.

Again, this is for people who have already proven themselves in the marketplace, and don't actually need a degree.  In that specific instance, I say do what makes you happy.

If my kid, who is just about to graduate from high school, says he wants to work in IT, and wants a degree, then I'm obviously going to steer him in a completely different direction.  (And even then, my husband has already told him to get certs first and foremost over a degree and get working immediately, as that's what's going to make the difference in his career, rather than a degree).

Thanks for sharing your experience. It's making the decision difficult for me! I don't actually *want* a degree, because most of the requirements to fulfill it are so boring. But I do want the signal. I am thinking that adding a degree to my already strong signal (work experience, portfolio) isn't worth the time... In any case I'm still working towards it.