Even degrees don't mean much. It's not like you get to skip the fizzbuzz and trivia/whiteboard gauntlet by virtue of a fancy CS degree from Yale. Obviously certifications are worth less than Ivy League degrees, so that should give some idea what certifications are worth.
The basic issue is that there are plenty of people with certifications and degrees that can't produce, they are completely helpless. And there are plenty of people with no certifications or degrees that are top notch producers. There's no correlation. You have to test each person, you can't rely on the paperwork from some third party to mean anything.
A related issue is it is not uncommon at all to find people creating certification sets and teaching university classes who have no experience doing design or development of real projects. Their experience is non-existent, also known as academic knowledge. It's not surprising that many students doing well grade-wise in these programs can not do real world work, other than perhaps pursue the PhD and join a university themselves to pass on their academic perspective, devoid of real world capability, to the next generation of academics.
On the other hand, a portfolio of their own work and past creations is a pretty good indicator of actual talent. People know what John Carmack, Larry Wall, and Linus Torvald's skills are, and it has nothing to do with any degrees they may or may not have.
The basic issue is that there are plenty of people with certifications and degrees that can't produce, they are completely helpless. And there are plenty of people with no certifications or degrees that are top notch producers. There's no correlation. You have to test each person, you can't rely on the paperwork from some third party to mean anything.
A related issue is it is not uncommon at all to find people creating certification sets and teaching university classes who have no experience doing design or development of real projects. Their experience is non-existent, also known as academic knowledge. It's not surprising that many students doing well grade-wise in these programs can not do real world work, other than perhaps pursue the PhD and join a university themselves to pass on their academic perspective, devoid of real world capability, to the next generation of academics.
On the other hand, a portfolio of their own work and past creations is a pretty good indicator of actual talent. People know what John Carmack, Larry Wall, and Linus Torvald's skills are, and it has nothing to do with any degrees they may or may not have.