Yeah, you definitely need to get back on the right side of the IT house. Development? Come on... I get to be a one-man wrecking crew for a web software company. On the plus side, I get to work with a whole bunch of different stuff. On the down side, I don't get to invest the time to become an expert on any of it. Now if I could just offload all the tasks I don't like (tape backups anyone?) on to someone else, I'd be a happy man. Certs are good. When I started this job, I took a slightly lower salary in exchange for guaranteed training dollars to be at my disposal every year, which I use to go to classes and get certified. It's a good investment.