I'll be funding myself and solely based on this I'm inclined to go with OffSec not unless there are any other options, even the material only with cert exam seem expensive for the GPEN.

I used to work for Agilent. It's a good place to be from. 

Thanks timmedin, much appreciated, I've signed up to volunteer for the London SANS in November, I think it will be a great experience as well as making the GPEN affordable.
In the meantime I think I'll sign up for the OffSec course.

Dont even bother with the CEH its worthless... Useless for getting a job, Useless for learning anything practical... and all around a complete waste of time...

Take the offensive Security 101 training instead.. You will learn much more then the CEH and it will be practical experience not memorizing slides and useless information about trogen passwords from 1995..... man the ceh is useless, note I took that exam back in 2003 and it hasn't improved much from what i have seen...

Also if you do get a bit of money.. The training from infosec institutes advanced class is very good if you are interested in another certification that will prove that you actually learned something.. CEPT Warning with that cert though... Make sure you go into that class knowing how to use linux... basics of how overflows work.. and at least read up on Assembly and know the basics......

Hmmm GPEN I dont know much about... I know that ed scoudos guy seems to be pretty knowledgeable and he wrote the course and teaches it.. his web casts are great so try for the discounted 700 dollar volunteer work... I dont think you could go wrong with that..... Plus I think with that you get access to the online material for a bit too....

Another great place to learn stuff is on the forums.... This forum.. Learn Security Online's forum... The backtrack forum... Blogs like carnol0wnage.. etc etc....

Ok, well, I can't say that I entirely agree with the two above. But I don't disagree with everything stated either. Having taken all three of the mentioned courses (CEH, OSCP and GPEN) I can certainly offer comparisons between them.

That being said, the CEH was the first certification I obtained. It did give me some recognition with my employer at the time (quite possibly from just the name), and it definitely came into play shortly after once I started getting security-related tasks. Now, I had prior hobby experience before earning the CEH, and I did further research/testing/etc. on my own during and after the course. What I'm getting at (and I've said this in the forums here before - as well as others) is that the CEH can be what you make of it. It's an introductory certification, not meant to make you an expert. If you take the concepts learned, the tools used and the resourcefulness you should have as an ethical hacker, you can quite easily turn the CEH into a lot more. And this isn't just for CEH, but for any security certification in general you're going to need to constantly stay updated.

For the cheapest route, you could do OffSec or CEH courseware. Then of course if you do the volunteer thing for SANS, you can get the GPEN for a great price. Knowing what each includes and that you're trying to get the most bang for your buck, my suggestion would be this: Do the OffSec course and buy one or two of the CEH prep books (not the official review guide, but the ExamPrep or the Prep Guide. If you decide to take the exam, then purchase the Official Review Guide for studying prior. Since you mentioned doing the volunteer thing with SANS, that's when you can do the GPEN. They will all certainly complement each other and you'll learn quite a lot.

BillV

I always had the same question, which to do first OSCP or CEH, I understand that CEH is an entry level and the OSCP is a practical leve, but normally what do you take first?

The path I took waz
CEH -> OSCP101 -> GPEN560

Introduction -> Hands On -> Hands On/Business Stuff respectively