During my exposure to the academia, I have found out a bitter truth about becoming a professor. I may sound frustrated here but it is my opinion about your question. You need to have one of the following: a lot of grant money OR a lot of hands-on experience. If you are planning on going down the PhD path, you need to make sure that you land up in a good school and a great advisor who can help you publish a lot or give you exposure to funding resources and grant writing. Schools only invite the candidate who can bring money with them. If you have grant money any school will pick you up. Certainly this option has 1000% uncertainty rates.
The other way, and I agree with Tudor_Queen, if you have a lot of hands-on experience people do not care about what degree you hold. I know two cases where people with Masters degree were chosen over the PhDs, just because they had more work experience.