I, too, am on this quest to become a Network Engineer. I have two friends that are currently working as Network Engineers. One works for a muscle magazine company in management, and the other works for a bank. I currently have had two years experience as a network administrator and am now a college student at Oregon State University. One of the suggestions that I got from my best friend is that I should concentrate on programming. No matter what you want to do in the networking industry, I was told that programming is invaluable. What I am doing to prepare myself in the market is get my CS degree and then seek certifications... Good luck!