not sure about now but they were pretty much rock stars in the 90's.. and I *believe* that Lawlor at least was being paid a bonus on a per-unit basis (so he cleaned up pretty well)

Not to mention some of these guys own patents

I would say go for the whole degree. In a tough job market who wants to hire someone with a 2 year degree? Especially in a technical field? If you said no one then you are correct. I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but you can't just go to ITT tech and make 80k a year or whatever they portray on their commercials.

But ITT and DeVry offer *nine month wonder* programs as well. And then there was R*E*T*S .....

Honestly at this point in my life, I'm not really sure I care. I make decent money, I don't have student loans, I don't have the worries that a product manager has, I'm in a nice comfortable middle position. I'm not a cad monkey that makes drawings from models all day, but I still get to design and make improvements to existing products. Also education isn't everything. I've worked with engineers with Bachelor's degrees that are book smart, but have never even touched a vertical mill or a lathe. How can you design anything without knowing how molds are machined or the capabilities?

When I get laid off in a massive cutback 2 years ago, I was re-employed in less than a month so I'm not really that worried about the job market (my experience on my resume speaks for itself). I realize by "definition" I'm not a "mechanical engineer" by license, but I do mechanical engineering work. Not any different than Steve Ritchie being a mechanical engineer without a degree.

Sometimes a 4-year degree can hurt you because you're too big of an expense. How many stories do you hear about people with master's degree working at a fast food joint because nobody wants to hire them? I've been told by many managers (including my current one) that upper management see engineering as nothing but a cost they'd like to get rid of. Design the product, and just keeping cranking the production gears until the product obsoletes itself. Nobody makes any money working for the man, if you want to make real money you have to work for yourself (at least on the side) which I have plans to do (and have).