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That sounds incredibly stressful, and I'm truly sorry you find yourself in this situation... But I honestly wouldn't stress so much about the degree. I don't know the exact hiring standards 'round your parts, but mine has entered the discussion precisely zero times in 12 years of working. I've just quit a QA Engineer position where I was considered Senior (for some reason...) and all I have under my belt is a Bachelor's in Theatre Acting.

To be fair, I literally started from the bottom, my first job paid the bare minimum and I languished there for about 4 years (big corpo, one of a hundred billion nameless faces, that kind of deal) before they pushed me to PM basically because they had nobody else with that amount of time spent on the procedures. Got lucky because that's where the Liberal Arts background actually came in handy, helps with people stuff. And I just launched afterwards through start-ups (although I really don't recommend them nowadays, VERY volatile), where they needed skill over paperwork.

Point is, skill always shines through eventually. Just make sure you keep yourself sane until you get there!

I wouldn't beat myself up about not finding myself, either. And, honestly, I don't think anyone ever will, because we're so dynamic in terms of psychology, that by the time you find something which'd work with you as you are now, you'll have been a thousand different "you"s and it will be obsolete. I try to apply the engineer's credo: "good enough is good enough," whatever doesn't piss me off to the point of going apeshit is a-ok in my book! Edit to add: I also believe the journey's more important.

As a (veeery sloowly) recovering stress addict, I can guarantee that the two are directly linked, the body does, indeed, keep the score. Just imagine the kind of damage done by the kind of existential anxiety you're describing... I'll not insult you by assuming I know exactly what you're going through, but I do understand what you mean. Think it's affecting all of us in one way or another, it's been feeling like the rumble before the wall of snow for a couple of years now...

It's my absolute pleasure, and I hope it helped at least with letting you know you're not alone out there. Just hunker down as best you can and take care of your soul. Not saying this with any connotation, protect that spark which is You at any cost, and spoil it like you would your own child.