I got my CCNA and an AAS in Networking, and the best I could find were cable installation jobs. If you want to be able to do something else on the Cisco certification track, you will need to specialize and/or get at least the CCNP. Taking some classes in Network Administration and learning linux might be helpful, but you will likely start in at the bottom and have to work your way up. Also, Cisco certifications are only good for 3 years, so if your job requires a valid/active cert, expect to retest at least that often.
Also, it is possible to pass the CCNA without working on hardware, but it becomes progressively more difficult when getting more advanced certifications (the emulators aren't that great and are incredible resource hogs). You can buy a certification kit online, but they are not cheap. Also, Cisco can change what hardware will be tested and which ios's they will be using for the tests.
This post was edited by joeshabadoo on Mar 11 2014 12:05pm