path to project management opportunities?

jrs91

Right now I'm the sole remaining IT guy at a small company. I manage 8 servers and about 60 workstations, and do some .net programming (i'm no expert but I can get things done). There used to be 4 of us but now it's down to me. It's a windows 2003/exchange environment. Frankly I have so little work to do these days now that everything is running smoothly (wasn't always the case). I'll likely be spending 30hrs/wk studying for certs on company time...

Anyway, I'm thinking about my future career path b/c I want to leave this job for something that will help me develop my career within the next 6mo-1yr (easier to finish uni at my current job b/c i can come and go). I need a more complex environment and I need access to new projects, and not just ongoing maintenance.

By the time I start looking for a job I will have ccna and mcse, and possibly ccnp. I was originally going to try and find a pure networking job, but I've been thinking that might not be the best choice for my ultimate goal of CIO (ya it's far-off and ambitious), so I'd like to get involved in project management sooner rather than later.

Would I be right in assuming that looking for generalist positions (sysadmin over network engineer) would be my best bet? I assume that over the next year or two a lot of companies will be moving over to the new windows/exchange systems and vista, so my timing couldn't be better.

And what sort of companies should I look at?

I'm in Canada and one company in particular, CGI, hires tons and tons of tech people. Assuming I got a job there and aggressively upgraded my certs, and assuming i'm not a moron, would this type of company provide rapid advancement to match my cert upgrades? Do they typically give you more responsability as soon as you get your ccnp or whatever with an associated pay raise, or do people generally have to bounce around a lot?