Eric the Red

I have a question for any proffesional programmers out there. I'm just wondering to if it's likely to get a programming job without any post secondary eduction or very little maybe a 2 year college diploma. Let me tell you the situation first.

Now i'm really really into programming, in fact i have a passion for it. I don't think that i'm going to make it to university. So i'm wondering how easily i'd be able to get a job if i really work hard read many books on programming. Is a degree / certificate all they look for. Please tell me if "knowing your stuff" is good enough for them or do they require you to have some evidence of your programming skills (degree).

If not, what programming language should i move towards. I've heard that "c# is where the industry is going in database programming" ( from one of my database programming friends) and database is where i want to go.