I can feel for the hands-on engineers without an education -- I was one.
It is well understood in industry that the best engineers unequivocally come up from the floor like I did. You not only have superior blueprint reading and visualization skills but also the unparalled experience to finish a product from prototype to launch -- Not to mention the millions you save companies by visualizing mistakes in drawings before the prototypes.
But you have to take your craft to the next level to get respect -- and that's why I graduated with highest honors from a top school and achieved both national honors and national dean's list. GM, GE, & NASA, for example, have experience with engineers that came up from the floor and concurred they make superior engineers -- and that's why all 3 wanted me in engineering mgmt.
Only a handful of engineers in the country can boast that -- if any.
And the best is yet to come.