IT Industry people, step in plz

[Goodspeed]

Thanks for the replies so far - some good insights.

I'll jump ahead a bit chronologically in my reply - I hadn't considered project management, or really anything traditional "business". I took a SSI/Birkman aptitude test and ranked fairly high for IT and very low for business - I think that has to do with my type B introverted-ness, which is all to say, I think I perform best when I'm left to my own devices with a set task. Call it curmudgeonly, but I think I sort of got sick of dealing with tons of people through sales...

I've also gained an appreciation for having certified, tangible skills that you can put on a resume and use in the real world. As Derek put it (and I agree, at least from my experience), if you've gone for a lib. arts degree, you better damn well have the GPA, internships, tribal stamp, life force, whatever to go with it.

For those saying a CCNA isn't the hot ish anymore, is there something that would be more worthwhile to look at, like a Cisco vs. MS. vs. CompTIA kind of thing? Seemed to me in my research that the Cisco certs have a slight edge. Rex, I hadn't looked at security as closely, but I could have a look at that - I know I sounded very gov. focused in my first post but at this point in my life a big part of whats going into my thinking process is geographical location - I don't want to be tied to DC/Nova forever (I know network security doesn't tie you to the feds, just saying in general). To perhaps open this up a bit, I am interested to know more about some of the best entrances one can make for a hands-on IT career.