How Much Weight does a Conference Paper carry compared to a Journal Publication?
The weight given to conference and journal publications is completely determined by field. In a few fields, such as CS, they have essentially equal weight and the vetting process is similar. This is partly due to the fact that the field itself is less mature and fast changing and many breakthroughs in subfields are first introduced at conferences. 

In other fields this is quite different and journal publications may have much more weight than conferences - even if the conference paper is published in a proceedings. 

So, it depends on your audience. You may need advice on this from someone in the field who represents that audience. For doctoral students the advisor is usually a good guide for such things. 

And, of course, there are low-quality conferences just as there are low-quality journals. Beware.