IT Industry people, step in plz

[Apoc]

The thread is awesome.

[CaptainHenreh]

The thread is awesome.

And kind of dumb.

[Evan]

Derek I see your point now, I agree that modern programmer jobs just dont need much in the way of pure math skills. (imo a good thing)

You can get your foot in the door with help desk/support work with minimal experience and an unrelated degree if you want to be an "IT guy". Much harder to do if you want to work as a developer - you'll need a CS degree or some other way to demonstrate proficiency (i.e. paid side work) to get an entry level job.

Not necessarily. I would put them at about equal as far as 'foot in the door' difficulty.
In either job, to get the interview you're going to have to have something on your resume to show that you know at least a little something. Programming certs, classes, or side work will get you an interview for an entry level coding job just like similar skills will get you an interview for entry level IT job.
Most programmer jobs have a tech test at the interview to verify your skills also.

[Evan]

Goodspeed should just get the same IT job that Rex has so you can just surf the internet all day too.

[FlaakCM]

CCNA is really only worth it if you want to go into networking and only to show you have basic understanding of how networking work.

I am a Storage Engineer, and I love it. If you understand hard drives and how SAN and NAS works and relates to servers, it might be the path for you.