All things being equal, two people with 5 years of experience doing similar things - looking at two resumes... a cert might make a candidate float to the top.

OTOH, we have a requirement for someone before we hire them - we want them to be 'bright'. That's not something tangible, but it is important - some people you can tell just 'get it', some don't.

As a consulting company... it is nice to have certified folks on staff to give potential clients a more warm fuzzy feeling when they are looking at hiring you to do a job. Using the scenario above... if a potential client has two firms with 5 programmers each - one firms employees are certified, college grads, the other has no certifications, 'some' college, etc. Who do you think they will pick?


>I was at one time considering MVP certification, and have from
>time to time continued to.
>
>My position is this:
>
>I have been developing software for almost 20 years in a variety of
>products, with Fox/VFP for the last 10 straight.
>
>I can count on 2 hands the number of developers I'v met that
>actually have a degree, or any form of certification.
>
>What counts most to a employer is what you can do for the company
>through your experience. If a person has 10 years of solid development
>experience in a language, and no degree, and is applying for a job
>along side a person with a B.S. in CS fresh out of college with no real
>world experience, who would you hire?
>
>I'v also been consulting for 5 years now on the side, and with all the companies
>I have worked for and done business with, not one has ever asked for any credential
>such a a certification. Some list a degree in CS as a requirement, but it has always
>been a loose requirement, sort of a nice to have kind of thing.
>
>So what that leads be to beleive is that certifications are just not important to
>someone looking to have a business need met as is getting the problem solved.
>
>Therefore, my question is; Why bother with the certification at all?