Hey Career Guiders,

Firstly, I'd like to say that I've posted before on this reddit and believe it to be one of the most charitable, thought-provoking, and honest communities on reddit. I thank anyone who has replied to my previous posts and thank anyone reading at the moment. I've cherished this community's advice in the past and very much look forward to any more I may receive.

I'm trying to keep this post out of short novel territory, so if you have questions please fire away. I'll be watching this post closely so as to keep replies rapid.

I need help knowing which skills would be best for me to invest my time into given my short term goal and my long term goal. My short term goal is to get a very entry level technical position at my current company or a new company. My long term goal is to go back to school for an M.S in Computer Science. More than anything I would like to go to Georgia Tech's OMCS.

My current job is in Customer Support for a small SaaS company. I do very basic trouble shooting, although we do sometimes have to use the Google Dev console or something like MX Toolbox. Really nothing that technical though, I sorta have to jump this ship after a year and a quarter because I really need more truly technical experience.

My plan right now is to spend this year chopping away at certifications in the hopes of moving somewhat laterally within my current company to a more technically oriented department. If they won't take me, I'll look elsewhere and get a job with these certifications nonetheless.

What this means is getting certified / gaining knowledge of in Apache Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, and getting some basic understanding of how web apps work.

Before I get these certs, I was looking to also get my A and Net certifications. I feel as if I have to prove a broader understanding of computers and IT to establish some credibility when going in for these interviews.

Thing is this is all going to take a hell of a lot of time, and I'm not even sure if the CompTia certs are going to be worth it, especially given my long-term goal.

If any of you know anything about technical careers generally or have done the switch from a semi-technical role to programming, please let me know!

Thanks,