I've worked in IT with no certs or degrees for about 5 years now. I've always been efficient and am able to pick up new skills fairly quickly, to the point where I am constantly praised for my good work. I've never been favored for better wages or benefits, though.
The most recent company I've worked for used to be great. A small business that paid really well, had great benefits, and they didn't care if you took a day as long as you got your shit done. I exhausted all vacation, sick, and personal days working there because literally no one cared if you were gone as long as you had everything taken care of and it didn't force anyone else to do more work.
Absolutely a dream to work for, I got a dollar raise after 3 months working there. However, 6 months ago we were bought by a large megacorporation. During the first couple of months we were told that we were all going to keep our jobs, they weren't buying the company to take over how we do things and were going to let us be self-sufficient.
Everyone was on edge, though. Going from small business to a company that owns hundreds of other companies is a huge step. Most of these people have worked here for 20-30 years. After November hit, everything was settled. They owned us. They sent an HR rep over, got us enrolled in benefits, then fired half of the company.
Half a million in salary was freed up after they fired 15 people. The next few months have been hell. We've all been doing pretty much double work. We can't take time off without screwing over any of the other techs. We sort of stagnated since, our frustrations growing, bullshit team-building exercises, etc. One of us was offered another job elsewhere. It sparked something. 6 of us are actively looking for work elsewhere. Once we leave the company as it stood will be no more.
There are hundreds of fully remote, good pay IT jobs out there. I've applied to probably 80 this week alone. I've only had 3 follow up since I don't have certificates or a degree. One of those seemed like a golden opportunity, but I only got one interview in when I got a message that someone else was offered the job. The other two I ended up looking up on Glassdoor. They all had amazing reviews from everyone except for their IT department. All Help Desk, Network Analysts, System Administrators all reviewed them with 2 stars or less.
Most places I've worked neglect the IT department, hard. I'm not going to work for a place like that anymore. I will gladly take a few months working a register at a convenience store rather than get involved in that again.