i have a cert in IT but never found work related to the field after going to VCC. i applied, but nothing. seems like every company out there is looking for someone with experience and if you don;t have that they don't want to hire you.
i'm thinking of going to take course in the A plus certification so it can prepare me to write it.
i also went to school for 2 yrs at langara for business management program, but couldn't find work related to the field. i tried everywhere from CL, monster, workopolis.... and i went to job search clubs and they help me with tweeking the resume and cover letter.
i been doing lot attendant, cashier/merchandiser,temp job for job agency like randstad, driver at car rental places, jobs for 6 years now since i couldn't find work related to the field

i want to take the A plus cert and hoping it will get me a help desk , IT job, if not maybe go into web design.

has anyone here been through this kind of situation and if so what do you do?

I suggest you to go back and study more, get more qualifications in IT. Which area do you want to focus in.

Network
Servers
Program

do you have a degree in it?
in this world a four year degree is the minimum requirement to get a job these days
maybe you should go to school and get a four year degree go to a public one, if you go to a public one financial aid should help you cover them

or even better go to a community college for two years then transfer to u of your state

ever consider an internship? especially in IT work experience is really important !

get like a cisco certificate or microsoft i think they are more respected in the industry

do u have a graduate degree in it or just a certificate? because in the real world that wont be worth as much as you want it to...
to get a job in the field ur gonna need connections as well as a degree from a well known college

^ You'd want a well-known college but you don't need a well-known college if you play your cards right.

these days you have to specialise

VMWare
Sharepoint
SMS
Cisco
VoIP
Network security/firewalls
SAN/backups
UNIX/LINIX engineers