A degree can open a door. Skills are what keep you in the room.

Credentials do one job well, which is getting someone to look at you in the first place. After that, nobody checks the paper again. What gets checked is whether you can do the thing on a Tuesday when it is harder than described. That gap between getting in and staying in is where most of the surprises happen.

Look at whatever you are studying and ask what you could actually build or fix with it right now. If the answer is nothing yet, pick one small real task and do it badly. Doing beats knowing about.