I left school with 10 'O' levels. No A levels and no degrees. I went straight into work and in spare time achieved a PPL. This interested me to the extent I wanted to go further in aviation. As already said in time I changed jobs and got into an airline and then into flight planning (and in spare time got an ATPL). I wont go into the many things I have done - this is just to illustrate that it is not what you start with, or the courses on your cv, it is what you work at and achieve in life.