A Cert in Common Sense will mean more to a good employer than a fancy piece of paper stating you are good at taking a test, of course demonstrating that you have common sense and experience in the field in which they need you will greatly depend on your references, there was a time that an A+ cert would get you in the door to almost anywhere with a good salary, but post .com tech industry there are fewer and fewer certs that aren't already saturated in the job pool, but a lot of those people have little to no real experience. Cisco certs are always good to have, but rightly difficult to obtain the higher tier you are shooting for, IIRC dell has a program where you can get help in getting certs that will help expand your knowledge base as long as they can utilize the skill set you wish to learn.