>same way I'd feel if I did absolutely squat to neither better skills and nor learn anything new in this field in 2 years... justifiable left behind with only myself blame.

When I got out of FPW and into VFP I vowed never to be that far behind again.


>So do I think certification proves one's abilities? nope. And do I think certification proves anything? yupyup... it proves the folks who get certified are ambitious, dedicated to their career path, and have proven themselves in regards to being able to put forth a better than average level of effort.

This is an extremely important point. I'm a 1-person shop and my boss is not an IT person. The people I work for really have no way of knowing whether the stuff I produce is good or not. But they have seen me get certified by an outside agency who says that I at least know something about what I'm doing, and also that I'm making a lot of effort to better myself.

>And lastly, I've seen for myself first hand that for the right person and/or in the right arena, certification can be extremely valuable...

Becoming certified also helped me prove to myself that I had some level of expertise and helped me see where I fit in with the rest of the crowd.