Would someone with any cert start out with A+ then move to Network+ or just moved into the CCNA at the start?

I've looked at Network+ enough to see that there's some overlap. Certainly, having Network+ helps prepare you for CCNA. Frankly, though, CCNA has become much tougher cert over the years. It started out as covering one five-day course's worth of material, and now covers two five-day course's worth. I know plenty of experienced folks who've made lower scores on the CCNA exams than on the CCNP exams. (I know there are more factors there - that's anecdotal.) But I think the two-exam path to CCNA (ICND1 exam, then the ICND2 exam) is a great path to start, bypassing Network+. Particularly if you want a job with more than 20 per cent of it on network stuff, go ahead and jump into CCNA with the two-exam path would be my advice.

Under what circumstances should someone enroll in a class to study for a hard cert as opposed to self-study with books?

Interesting question. I think that if you had two certs to get, and one was harder for you than the other, and only had $$ for one class, take the class on the harder cert. However, generally speaking, I tell people that if you measure your current knowledge versus what's required for a cert, and you know less than a third, then taking the class may be more time efficient. If you're past the one-third mark, it starts to get to be as time efficient to do self-study. That's just Wendell's reading of how the wind's blowing, though, nothing scientific there.

I need to re-certify my CCNA. What are the major differences between the old CCNA Exam (640-801) from three years ago and the new CCNA Exam (640-802)?

Less OSI. Less navigation trivia. IPv6, deeper on OSPF and EIGRP (e.g., authentication), more on concepts with security and wireless. It didn't lose a lot (your old resources probably still apply), but they've done much better at testing all CLI stuff using Sim and Simlet questions.

How do you feel about brain dumps? Some argue Cisco makes the exams so difficult brain dumps are justified.

Feel? I think brain dumps should be avoided at all costs. Personally, it bugs me that people would purposefully use brain dumps to get ready for the test. I wasn't a fan of "word" (aka copies of old exams) in college, either. Didn't seem fair or right. If the reasoning is that the exam is too hard (and I don't think they are), then we ought to be begging Cisco for better resources to prepare. Maybe I should dig harder when creating my own products so that people prefer to use them, rather than use brain dumps.

Will the CCNA really open the doors of networking jobs? I mean is it really easy to get a job as a CCNA?

To be honest, I don't think getting CCNA is going to get you a job, at least in the U.S. Getting CCNA, plus skills/certs in other areas, is important to landing the job as the IT generalist for a medium sized company - someone who's the server guy, the voice guy, the network guy, and the storage guy. I think that for a network-centric job, i.e., 50 per cent plus is network-oriented, you'll need CCNA plus experience, or at least good progress towards CCNP/CCVP etc.