I'll take the contrarian view that NONE of the certs ever really end up paying for themselves - unless your employer pays for them for you!

I did that treadmill for years, getting certs and then more certs to eventually find that the ones employers really seemed to want were the classes that cost 25-50k... and even then they weren't to pay the cost for you to go, or compensate your salary for having them in the first place.

When I finally gave up trying to work in IT (after 30 years of experience), employers were wanting full Cisco, 5 different MS certs, plus all of the other usual suspects... and then only willing to pay $12-15 an hour (at most - no benefits).

WAY TOO MUCH supply of kids willing to work for almost nothing now.

 

-----signature-----

I'll take the view that you were working for terrible people / applying for terrible positions. I'm doing better than that and I don't even have an IT degree from college. Consultants at my job, SMEs in Exchange / Citrix / make almost 6 figures. And that is low. My buddy never even graduated from university and is making $55k a year, full benefits and 40k w/ matching doing software support.

My mind is truly blown that your prospects could be THAT terrible. I think you are either grossly exaggerating or you aren't giving the whole story.

Certs aren't everything but the knowledge helps!

How you prove it is up to you. Some people, especially the shy quieter types, tend to find certs easier to get their foot in the door to get a chance to prove themselves. That doesn't mean they are required.

 

-----signature-----

Tenaciousness got my foot in the door, but that's me. Certifications are pretty necessary to get you an interview with a company you have no 'in' with, but not to get you the job.

http://www.usajobs.gov/

That is the official site to look for gov't jobs. I am a defense contractor myself but I work with DoD civilians everyday. As a general rule, contractors make more but the work is not as secure as gov't jobs. If you want contractor work you'll have to do some research. There are lots of companies out there to choose from. Many flock to the bigger companies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, etc but there are a large amount of smaller companies that are great places to work. As for remote jobs, yes. I am a remote employee with a flexible arrangement. I have an office on a military base as well as a home office and I have the choice of which to work in on a daily basis.

 

-----signature-----