I worked as an IT trainer for about a year so I'm surprised that companies look favorably at an MCSE at all most people just memorized brain dumps and didn't know much at all.

If you are relatively young my best advice would be to stay in school and get a degree in something along with the cirts at least until the job market picks up. There are a lot of MCSE wit years of experience out of work some one with no work experience will have a very hard time getting work. Heck it took over a year for one friend of min to find a job after getting laid off and he’s a CCIE.

While you are working towards your MCSE I would recommend getting Server, this will let you get an MCSA on your way to the full MCSE, and any security certs in there will help also.