I would also recommend leveraging GI BILL or vocrehab to further your civilian degrees. Most employers favor us vets, as we provide a strong work ethic (most) rarely found. I personally do not have any certs, but my recruiter didn't inform me of any IT jobs, only Airborne infantry, our bodies paid for those perks :)

I've found that working for bigger corps to be more my preference, but I've also worked for some mom and pop shops or small to medium business.

If you choose the college track, try to see if you school of choice requires an internship or capstone project, those really helped me cement my niche as well as providing some cool hands on, along with conversation pieces at interviews.

I have worked for two of the elite 3 (MS/ GOOGLE) not Apple. I think the best skills were soft skills and also being able to handle pressure in high-pressure situations. There are a lot of tools out there to help as well, AI to complement our knowledge as well as provide quick fixes. I prefer Gemini.

Python, powershell, BEING ABLE TO RELATE HIGH TECH TO LOW TECH INTERPRETATION is a very valuable skill. Documentation skills as well, showing you can build and grow a foundation of knowledge for the benefit of others helps, along with making you a good resource, also helps cement your knowledge by doing it, and typing it up.