[ILUG] [OT] Employment advice

[John Healion]

 Hi all,
 	I have returned to Ireland two month's ago and I want to pursue a
 career in networking.
 
 I do not have a degree in computer science or any formal education in computing.
 
 I've had a chat to some local employers and they seem to think the MCP and the
 MCSE are all the rage. In Australia , where I spend the last serveral years ,
 these two courses are held in low regard.
 
 My preference is for the Cisco certification's (ccna,ccnp,ccie) and these were
 held in very high regard with comment's like "you will know your stuff when you
 finish one of these". I know these courses are not cheap or easy , but seem to
 be more interesting and I'm not afraid of a bit of hard work.
 
 So, my question is , given my backround (or lack of it) how employable would I
 be if i did the CCNA. 
 
 Would this be enough to get a junior position to get more experience  and money
 to get the next certification? Is this the way you would do it?
 
 Are the Cisco certifications held in high regard in Ireland?
 
 What about the Redhat certifications? Not a cheap or easy solution but
 definatly more interesting. Has anyone done one.
 With the future of Linux in little or no doubt and with major companys putting
 Linux on the desktop and on servers,  are employers looking for the RHSE ?
 If you could reply off list please as everyone on the list seems to be a
 working perfessonal already.
> Thanks for any advice you care to give. John