Calling all Security Engineers...A lost n00b needs your help.

I've worked at an MSP for 2 years dealing with all sorts of issues ranging from your basic "reset your modem", to configuring various access rules and Site-to-Site VPN tunnels for customers, routing changes, etc..it was a great position that I learned a lot from but I was always jumping around from issue to issue never really sinking my teeth into one technology and sticking with it.

I found myself gravitating toward taking the FW related trouble tickets/requests. We used the ASA extensively and I've learned a lot on it. We did have a couple of PA's but I never got a chance to really mess around with them like I did the ASA's.

Anyway, I now got a new position at a different company that's more or less the same type of L1 support dealing with a lot of different technologies but the team I want to move up to is split up into a few different "specializations" (R&S, Load Balancing, DNS, Wireless, Security).

As the title states, I'd like to get into the Security side but have been hearing from a few colleagues that the CCNA-SEC certification isn't all that useful anymore.

Since the company that I'm at now only uses PA's and Checkpoint is it wise to just skip getting my CCNA sec and just focus on those 2 vendors?

I'd ideally like to get some sort of security related certification under my belt but not entirely sure what the best path is.

Appreciate any guidance.

Thanks!