I suppose this goes without saying but certs are only as good as the person behind them.

A few years ago I helped a guy pass his MSCE exam. The funny thing was this guy knew zip about computers before (and mostly after). He had been a carpet installer in his previous life. Anyway he passed his exam and was then hired as a sysadmin for a small town municipality for about 50 grand. I suppose OJT is the best kind of training anyway.

Certs have their uses, but it's no replacement for real knowledge. Back when I was still repairing computers for a living, I got my A+ cert because I thought it would help my marketing. Big shock. The test was so easy I didn't believe it when it ended. My respect for certs in general plummeted after that.

It is possible for some people to screw it up however. One of my employers sent an employee to a 2 week $2500 A+ cert course (note, they never reimbursed me for the cost of MY test); She still failed. LoL! Maybe that's karma in some way. I guess that is the real purpose of the certs, to separate the genuine idiots from the merely lazy.

-Ken