To the OP, take it from him and look no further. Get yourself enrolled in some learning course like the Matasano's crypto challenge and see where that takes you. Good luck.
cryptopals was the reason I got into security, everything just pales in comparison.
Certification: bad.
People think about certifications like those are some kind of magic trick, just like pickup lines.
You might get a girls attention but if you don't have anything else to keep her interested that line is not going to help you much. Let alone if she heard cheesy stuff from other guys that turned out to be not interesting or not having anything more to talk about.
There is bunch of people who think that they can get a certificate and that is it, while certificate might get someone to look at your CV, if you don't have anything more than cert you are not going to get the job. Many employers have hired people with certificates that did not deliver what they promised, many employees have seen such people hired and then let go.
That is also why no one is taking pickup lines seriously and no one is taking certificates seriously. Bragging about certificates/degrees is cheesy just like pickup lines are. Both are considered low effort and creepy attempts to get something.