BigBozat
Member
My IT is more on the dev side (data modeling, coding, systems analysis) & not so much on networking & sysadmin... personally I HATE the network engineering/admin side of things, and would shoot myself if I had to do it for a living (don't take it the wrong way; I have tremendous respect for some really good sys engrs I work with... it's just not for me)...
Never got any certs myself, and generally didn't need 'em... always been an auto-didact (self-learner), and at my company they don't care... at this point I'm too old & uninterested to bother getting any...
As to whether to go Cisco CCNA or whatever, seems to me first you have to grasp what it is about IT that you DO actually like... a sort of 'What Color is My Parachute' kind of thing (it's a book, not sure if its even still in print, but it was something I did waaaaaaaay back when changing careers; helped immensely to put me on the right path)... I simply liked figuring shit out (in this case, solutions to biz process problems), which is what led me down the systems/applications dev path...
You need to do some work figuring out exactly what it is that you DO like to do (whether it's in this particular job at this particular company, or otherwise) before you can really make meaningful decisions about what direction to go...
But, like I said b4, I already think you're heading down the right path... it may seem like agony, but it's necessary... like the French Foreign Legion says: "Pain is weakness leaving the body"
You will get thru it, and if you use it as a catalyst for figuring out what you love & how to get there (even if it takes a very long time), it will be well worth it... and in the meantime, take care of your lady...
