Totally agree here. A lot of jobs ask for a “4 year degree or equivalent” … the question is what is an “equivalent”? In my book, 14 years of experience on the job is likely pretty equivalent, and I bet it would be to a lot of other professional designers, but probably not HR departments. My advice, put together a kick ass portfolio, the network your butt off with designers, product managers, and engineers at your target employers and try not to apply through those form based HR systems.
I’m no knocking a 4 year degree here, I have one, and for most people in their late teens and early 20’s they are the most sure pathway into the industry, but for someone experienced you should be fine as long as you have the portfolio to back it up. One of my bosses at Nike was self taught. He was file clerk at LA Gear back in the day who took a few mechanical drafting courses. Every day he would put a sketch of a sneaker in the “employee suggestion box”. One day the head of design approached him and said why don’t you sit with us now. From there he went to Sketchers, from Sketchers to Nike ACG, to Jordan, to director of design at Jordan (where I worked for him) to starting the Pensole footwear design academy… So the self taught designer started a design school, with more of an apprenticeship model. Don’t let people hold you back, don’t think of yourself as self taught, think of yourself as highly experienced.
Honestly, outside of art/architecture/design history and some 2D/3D/color theory courses the rest can be learned on the job. Design is really just not an academic activity. Le Corbusier once said that. He also said to burn down all the architecture schools… and then he started one of the most famous art, design, and architecture schools ever.