From my experiences in actual "real world" scenarios, experience and some type of formal institution play key roles. I got a job doing sysadmin work for one of the largest hosting companies in the world. I knew linux and windows "in and out" and internet theory "in and out". However, I left that very good job to go back to college. Even though I was making really good money for a single guy in my teens (45k+) I wasn't happy with where I was going to be. I also program, which helped tremendously. In my opinion A+ certs get you no where, they are useless, even some of the old ms certs are junk. Real work experience is what really helps especially in the "art scene" of computers. Photoshop/web application programming are two qualities that will help you out. You should probably know them both proficiently.
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I'm hoping to maybe join a small startup company or the likes in maybe webpage creation
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that's going to be tough, there are SOOOO MANY companies doing the same thing, and with the advent of frontpage/dreamweaver it becomes even harder to stay competitive. You might want to get a job working with a team of web developers, which is usually how it plays out, the photoshop guys work with the cgi/application guys and vice versa. This way you get good experience and should be current with new coming technologies that apply to your work. I found that the people I worked with are really the best thing for learning, you learn so much from your peers. So if you want to be an "artist" thats cool, college definitely won't make you a photoshop expert, only you can do that. I'd say stick to college, and then build on your career from there.