I was wondering if someone could help me with deciding on the best way to break into a bioinformatics career. I have a BS in microbiology right now but intend on going back to school. I have heard of a program called a certified bioinformatics specialist but I am not sure if that is the best way to go. Would it be better to get a MS in bioinformatics and then get certified in programing languages like PERL and SQL?

Someone please provide some suggestions on this. I've got a BS in Molecular and Cell Biology and am currently the Team Lead of 46 Level 2 Unix and AIX Operators. A local university offers both MS in Bioinformatics and the National Bioinformatics Institute's Certified Bioinformatics Specialist certification (for US$6k). I'm a bit concerned that the bioinformatics certification isn't worth the $6000, but it's faster than the grad degree. What's really important to employers?

I foud this, it doesn't look good for the NBI CBS course: http://bioinformatics.org/pipermail/bio_bulletin_board/2002-October/000895.html