OK, I'm almost done with my college education in Network Engineering, and really, beyond a degree, any certification in the world, or the ability to make a dead router levitate over your head and magically work again, employers will be looking for experience.
Get a Hell Desk (read: Help Desk) Job. Can't Find one? 1. Bullshit. HellDesk sucks, and the turnover rate is ******edly high, even in this crap economy. 2. Really? Ok, Go volunteer. There are 2,686 YMCAs in the United States alone, and the experience I got at my local one has made potential employers much more interested in me over other people near my knowledge level. Especially because its non profit and you learn REAL FAST how to work within very limited budget when working at a Non profit. In addition, I was able to move up from my volunteering position to part time which helps pay for things while I finish my college degree out.
In 2004 Cisco moved a shitload of content from the CCNP to the CCNA. The CCNP now serves its purpose. Proving you're better than the CCNA guys and can do more things, instead of proving that you can do your job. The CCNA proves you can do your job now. Get a CCNA, you'll be fine for most things, just don't expect to be a communications supervisor at <major telecom here> with a CCNA.
If you can, learn how to be a Wirehead (
jargon, node: wirehead (2) Ignore the part about a Ethernet terminator. You are too young to know and you will never have to know) because the need for wireheads is ongoing and its a great skill to have. Remember that the ability to color code the back of a jack and use a punchdown tool does not make you a wirehead, you have to be able to run the cable, know what kind of cable belongs in walls and what doesn't, how to run cable to not violate fire safety codes, stuff like that. Its skill that doesn't go away either. You run Cat6e in pretty much the same way lodger probably used to run Cat3 and thinnet "back in the day" (I spent about a week last year pulling all the thinnet out of the ceilings at my job, simply to clean things up) and with the exception of fiber optics (which you have to be careful with) you'll probably be able to tear Cat7 right through walls at 40m/s like most wiring assholes (everyone in the industry, myself included) do.