Personal development: Career hurdles and how to clear them: Will an advanced degree and adherence to the work ethic suffice in moving ahead?

Faced with the myriad suggestions offered them on career development, engineers might well question the effectiveness of the various alternatives. Suggested courses of action have run the gamut from earning a higher degree and obtaining better job assignments to improving one's social skills and developing a “bail-out” option. But with the current scarcity of hard data on how such courses of action affect long-term career development, how can one confidently pursue any approach?