This is a rather contested topic within the community; here's my 2 cents:

Certifications are good for one purpose only- sometimes getting through HR hurdles when trying to get a job. Beyond that, it's all experience, experience, experience. My suggestion- get your hands on lots of different things- Linux, Solaris, AIX, Apache, Perl, Korn Shell, Bash, DHCP, MySQL, etc.. Linux is a great place to start. Getting some good fundamentals in TCP/IP would be helpful too.

Best regards,

- John