Small firms tend to worry a whole lot less about degrees, if you can convince them you can do the work. They are at least probably open to being convinced. Any firm which has ossified into one or more bureaucracies will be difficult - such monsters tend to have more checkboxes than anyone. Because we always have required managers to have candle-dipping experience. Dell, for instance, is run by a guy who never finished college - Michael Dell.
Some people are capable of learning everything on the job.
Freshmen, in particular, were welcomed in droves, and weeded out by throwing hordes of them into huge classes in subjects such as calculus, taught by professors who hated teaching freshman calculus, or by TAs. As a consequence, much of what I learned, I learned on my own. This is what everyone should learn to do anyway, regardless of possession of one or more degrees, to truly move forward. For the record My father has a PhD in chemistry from Georgia Tech. My mother has a BA in Business.