Your computer engineering degree and any programmer certifications are only as
good as your ability to market them to prospective clients or employers.  If
you hope to become wealthy by being a programmer, you should transfer your
hopes to gambling.

You actually can make quite an excellent living by mastering your people
skills as well as your engineering ones, and be adept in a broad variety of
environments.  As a programmer, you make the big money by doing more, faster,
with less trouble and with a passion that others cannot match.  Think like a
systems architect, not a bricklayer.

You will virtually never get more compensation than you request.

When approaching business, your must use formal English, no spelling
errors and no text speak. see
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/textspeak.html  Practice now using a spell
checker.

Keep in mind that fresh out of school you are worse than useless.  Any
employer taking you on is doing it in the hopes you will in a year or
two start earning your keep, or because you are his nephew.  Logically
you should be paying your employer in the first year as an extension
of your education.

This also gives a big hint on how to do your resume.  The key thing
the employer wants to know is WILL YOU HANG AROUND long enough to
recoup his investment in you. Give him all the reassurance you can
think of, primarily reasons why you chose his firm to apply to.

Big bucks go to those who have some obscure skill, often in databases
or Unix.  In the Java world do all you can to learn about J2EE.