Here's mine:
Certification is very useful.
Now I totally get why many people see them as surplus (or a bonus). I've met so many talented and highly skilled IT pros who don't have a single cert to their name and it has to be said that I've also met a few people who have an abundance of certs that haven't quite necessarily lived up to them.
There's also the age old problem of certification not equating to real-life experience, which is absolutely a fair point. At the end of the day you just cannot substitute actually doing the job, but does make certification a waste of time?
I honestly don't believe so. Although I only have one SQL related cert to my name (well I did but then it expired shortly after William the Conqueror took the helm) it proved to be an extremely valuable thing to have early on my career when it undoubtedly got me through the door to a few interviews where it was always mentioned (and subsequently led to my first "proper" DBA job).
Now it would be easy to ask that if they were that useful then why did I never take any more? In all honesty until recent times I've never really needed to but now with the emergence of so many new technologies I've hit the studying again. Taking certification in unfamiliar technology is a great way to learn because of the structured path that it provides and let's not forget the sense of achievement in actually gaining certification in something that has often started from very little knowledge.
I use the word achievement because gaining a cert really isn't easy, providing you do it in the right way. It takes hours upon hours of repeated studying, practice, not to mention an exam at the end of it which isn't everyone's favourite activity! Unfortunately though there are some short cuts available and there are people that take them but there's absolutely miles between someone who has taken a cert properly and someone who hasn't and that shouldn't devalue what certification stands for - that's not fair.
I've been on the other side of the interview table many times. For me certification really stands out and I can fully appreciate the efforts that people have taken to get it, and what it really means to them. I've interviewed people that are really trying hard to get into a role but they lack the significant experience but they've done the exam(s) to at least try to prove that they want to do it and for me that stands for a lot because I think it shows a great deal about the person, it's not just the cert.
Some people that I have met also take the certification path because they do stand for a certain level of expertise. I've seen more experienced people be very dismissive of certs, just like the MCTS which was the one I had. In fact I saw a whole social media conversation on that very subject shortly after I got mine. That really sucked because I think the point was missed; alright, I was in no way an expert (neither would I make out to be) but I'd learnt a lot, from nothing and at that time I had something to show for my efforts.
Like I said at the beginning, there is no definitive answer because many people haven't needed them and just as many have found them extremely useful. They don't substitute real world experience but then you can't really compare the two, they're completely different things but certification helps people get there, that, based on my own experience is the most beneficial factor.
