My 2 cents ::

Either heed jwents advice in choosing EE over IT/software development OR ponder a position in teaching at a secondary institution or a community college once you obtain your degree....

The Datawarehousing/Bus Intell would serve you better in the longrun and it will be more interesting and fun. You could also look at "data mining" if you do have a math bent but not a hearts-on-fire...

You can do it in well-under 5 months

CompTIA A+ certification
most sufficiently smart individuals can pass this cert after approximately 2 months [The Dummies series of books has a decent 9 in...