Certs certs certs, get your certs. My buddy got in directly w/ Cisco after finishing his ISM degree at UCSC. He couldn’t hack CS or CE (I did CS) and even w/ the known “easy way out” degree of ISM he got right in because a) he had lots of certs b) when it came to routing and Cisco technologies he really, really does know his shit. Cisco doesn’t care that he can’t code an OS or do advanced calc… cuz that’s not what they need. Now he’s got a great job with them making darn good money (for the Bay Area) that he can take to one of their many locations w/ the same pay (huge money outside of CA).
-TJ