Considering you joined the website nine years ago, you've could have put it on "slow boil " for almost a decade.
I'm not trying to be a penis, and I really want to work with people who want to work with me and are action-driven rather than "Well, about that, let me tell you a story".
I can get mad and make speeches about how there's a Chuck Yeager out there that didn't finish junior college, but it won't amount to a hill of beans.
In the meantime, at the major level, it continues to be a highly competitive environment and the idea that some of us (not saying you have this) that the competitive minimums are going to vanish or one is going to get acquired/merged into a job that he doesn't meet the basic qualifications for is pure fools gold.