You really need vendor and vendor neutral certificates to really get ahead in today's IT market. Certificates + experience seem to matter more, at least in my recent (successful) job search. It is true that certification has become less and less relevent to the real world and almost meaningless with brain dumps and the like, but when you are looking for a job, many HR departments, whether done by humans or a scanner will specifically look for acronyms like MCSE, CCNA, CCE, etc. I have personally seen cases where not having one certificate or another gave the edge to another candidate. The same can be seen with degrees. They have less in common with the real word. But it sure can't help and it may give you an edge over another candidate.
So, work on getting both. Quick gains can be made with vendor certification however.
A lot of where you focus depends on if you want to be self employed and what you like and how much money you want to make. I like network systems, Unix and unique or cutting edge systems and technologies so I focused on NetWare, Unix, Linux, and now, for the last four years, virtualization (VMware primarily but I do everything virtual so that includes Xen, MSVS, Virtuozzo, Hercules, Parallels, vPars, etc).
You should also know that the low end of pay is really on the PC client level. Most corporations store user data on servers and when a client has a problem either the entire system is replaced and then wiped with an image or a 'technician' comes out with a Ghost disk or boots from the network and lays a new image down. Not much troubleshooting there. Hardware issues are usually handled by the vendor for many SMEs and large corporations. Small offices or home offices usually will pay for a repair or OS support.
Big things I see are-read $$(and this is not all inclusive for sure):
Databases (SQL and Oracle are the big players)
Virtualization/Server Consolidation/P2V (HUGE!!!)
Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (Many companies taking a second look at this after Katrina-dovetails into Virtualization nicely)
Linux (Especially integration with Windows)
Windows and Active Directory (with emphasis on AD in the enterprise!!! Including design concepts-not just the server OS that everyone else knows and my 10 year old can install)
Network (Cisco skills are still a good bet and you should have this regardless of which of the above you like)
Novell NetWare (I know, but as less and less folks know this that puts a supply/demand imbalance on the talent which means you can ask for more money to support this-especially migrations to Windows or Linux and NDS to AD or OpenLDAP)
Regardless you should also be well versed in VBscript, Perl, Java, C# and Shell scripting at a minimum and C is very useful if you spend a lot time with Unix/Linux.
And that's not even considering programming which someone else can comment on or even the embedded word like PDAs, cell phones, media players, etc. Lot of paths for the new IT person for sure.
I recommend working for a VAR (Value Added Reseller) or for a consulting firm. The pay is higher than for a employee and often has similiar (and many times better) benefits. I'm billed out at $150 per hour and my cut is $50 per hour-with benefits. Not bad for a guy without a paper degree!
Remember: The more esoteric and unique-even difficult, the more it puts you in control. That's why Linux/Unix admins make more than Windows admins (easy now, I'm talking about in general of course).
Hope my perspective helps.
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