No doubt Im not looking at A+ as the end all be all or anything. Its really just to get me in the door because my previous job was more of a hook up that morphed into me being the "computer guy". I wouldn't have gotten that job anywhere else & my major isn't in the IT field.
I've looked into networking but I haven't looked into linux, MS servers or securities yet. Where should I start my research for securities & MS?
Look at MTA certs which are the entry level microsoft certs if you dont have a foundation of knowledge then move into the MCSA level certs.
If you dont want to do Microsoft then you can look at going the Linuix route with certs such as the Red Hat certified Admin.
For security I believe Security + is like an entry level one that actually is good for your resume.
I cant think of the entry level Networking certs off top (i know some i just cant remember what is entry level and what isnt).
If you can get that foundation you should be able to make a strong case for a junior sys admin job. Once you do that then look into Azure or AWS certs and learn a scripting language (python preferred) and then you can make some decent cake and move into more devops type roles.
Another thing I dont see people mentioning on here is product certifications for things like Salesforce.