I’m skeptical of certs, they don’t represent much more than a shallow baseline of knowledge and a minimum initiative to go get them. That being said, they’re much better than nothing.
Imo understanding networking fundamentals is huge. If you google “overthewire banditlabs”, there’s a series of challenges that test / teach you important skills.
Personally, I would rather see banditlabs over a cert, a cert over nothing, and tbh enthusiasm / teachability over everything.