I'm a VMware and Linux guy. I worked at Rackspace for 7.5 years. You are spot on with the salary comment Tony but there are many perks that you get being a Racker. It's a great place to work and a great place to get really strong skills. However, I recently left for more money so that my Wife can stay home with our soon to be born child. Virtualization is a very hot job right now and there's a lot of money to be made so I had to do what was best for my family.

RayAllan, You may want to consider systems administration as well. I know some people enjoy networking but I always found it boring. System administration is a lot more fun IMHO. The hardest thing though is getting your foot in the door somewhere. I would recommend trying to get a job at Rackspace as a monitoring tech or even a receptionist. Then learn all you can and get to be good friends with people in the specific IT area you want to work in. Going to school will help, but it's optional. I went to school and started at Rackspace as an intern making $8 an hour and it worked out very well for me.