I've been an "IT Guru" since the days of the Apple II. Now it's Exchange, AD, Cisco ASAs, iSCSI, etc. I can tell you that certs are OK to get in a company door. But if you want to be the company irreplaceable goto IT guy when hell breaks loose, trial by fire experience is 10x more important.than certs. But it also means learning the things cert prep doesn't teach you. Obscure things like low level Ethernet (SYN/ACK anyone?), SPAM methodologies, Spanning Tree, fibre channel, etc. Its those things that are the foundation for guruism (is that a word? lol).