Hi Wilkie,
Couple of comments.
First, for research, I love the annual Information Week salary survey. Here's a link to a recent one. https://www.informationweek.com/whitepaper/professional-development-and-salary-data/it-leadership/2021-it-salary-survey/429323 It may not answer any of your questions directly, but it will definitely help put some context of what real folks are doing in their careers.
Second, with some effort, you can extract some useful data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even if you're not in the US, you can find info about careers, predictions for job growth (numbers of people needed) for the next decade, that kind of thing. A link specific to networkers: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm. And a link to the home page: https://www.bls.gov/
So, on starting a career, a few thoughts. Skills rule. Become useful to a potential hiring manager. So, get CCNA. But more importantly, master those skills. Don't barely pass the exam and then forget things afterward. Certs without the skill implied by the certification don't help your career. So, some suggestions:
1) Spend some time getting better at lifelong learning. Make better learning habits that go beyond CCNA. A career in IT means a career with purposeful learning throughout your career - so learn more about and practice better learning habits. Being able to show progress by passing CCNA is great. Being able to show good learning habits that you can apply if they hire you is helpful, too, in my opinion.
2) Revisit what you learned in CCNA. Post-CCNA you should be ready to nail any CCNA-level questions in a technical interview. Study for and pass CCNA ( a great goal in my opinion - get the skills, prove it, but keep those skills sharp). But every two weeks or so, pull out notes and labs for one major topic area from CCNA and spend an hour or two remembering and practicing. Doing that will help your efforts in studying for the next thing you learn most likely.
Yes, many job postings will ask for experience and/or certifications beyond what's in CCNA. A first goal: be good and even great at the CCNA content... and then continue towards the next thing. Be useful to the potential hiring manager for a couple more topics beyond CCNA even before you pass that next exam. But I agree with your reading of those job postings, many of the job postings for networkers, for entry-level jobs, require skills beyond CCNA. So keep persisting and learning more. Also look for job roles w/ some networking responsibility, eg, 1st level support jobs (help desk, customer support center). Anything to get into a job that builds some experience.
Finally, on your last question, I don't know, but you might ask in the CyberOps community over at CLN: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/topic/0TO3i0000008jY7GAI/cyberops-certifications-community
Sorry for going on a bit, probably beyond what you asked. It's all meant as helpful. All the best, Wilkie.
