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Turns out I should've looked at thread context instead of replying from my notifications. If you meant what will help you stand out in terms of skills, unfortunately it's really hard to stand out early in your career. I got my break by working desktop support and learning as much as I could. Eventually (read: it took me 8 years at that job), I was competent enough that I made an impression on the server admin team and I got a shot at doing higher level stuff. From there it was a lot easier to get jobs, because I had legitimate sysadmin experience under my belt and could get into higher level sysadmin roles. I've also seen people just be in the right place at the right time and get hired as junior sysadmins even though they were really green, but you can't count on that.
Certs can help you, especially if you have a high tier one like CCIE (if someone is a CCIE and isn't at least getting interviews, that would be cause for surprise). But they are expensive AF to get on your own, as they are priced with the expectation that some corporation is paying you to get it and won't balk at a several thousand $ cost to get their guy certified. Because of that, I can't say I recommend pursuing certs as a way to get hired early in your career.
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