Steven.Howes (10/29/2014)
I know people sometimes bash certifications, but this is a big part of why I do them. They're a nice concise way of looking at the features of SQL Server that you may not use. Never in the depth you need, but still a good way to find new cool stuff. Without them I might have wondered about the XML features of SQL Server, but never know how much I really hate them 😀
I don't bash them. I find them worth the time.
I frequently do certification training during off time. I feel the knowledge from the training is well worth the time investment before I even have a certification from Microsoft. People can smash them until they are blue in the face. At the end of the day, the knowledge is what's most important to me. It's that knowledge that's going to help me answer questions correctly on a interview and that knowledge that's going to help me land the job; not the one line on my resume saying I acquired the certification.
So yeah, I agree!