Hey,

Most of the time, I find certs are useless... Sure as CSR mentioned, certs are useful when you don't have hands on experience... other than that the only time I'd advocate for them is if you have salary increases based on certification.

If you've got the experience why do you need to stick the letters after your name to prove it? I've done plenty of training courses for certs to get the knowledge, but I've never gone and written the exam... They are money grabs.

As for your MS, my opinion would be go for it only if you have a desire to teach at a college down the road (although, at least here anyways, that's not required) or if you want to go into some sort of management...

Honestly though, if you've got the experience and the hands on skills, you've got everything you need.

Your co-workers.. you need to decide if they're either worried you'll make them look bad with your ambition... or they're worried you aren't getting the skills. I can show you plenty of people that completed their CCNA based on memorizing some example tests, and CCNP too in some cases, yet don't have the skills to perform tasks in those areas.