I am going to go out on a limb here . . . I think the problem with Perl Certifications runs parallel with using Perl as an 'enterprise language.' I am not saying Perl can't be used as one - I am just saying that the certifications allow interviewers to 'weed-out' candidates in large 'enterprise' projects. Let me elaborte:

Everybody knows that a certification can only test so much, real world experience is much more desireable, and certifications simply turn coders into plugable components. A manager in such large projects does not have time to rigoursly interview each and every candidate - but by relying on certifications they can weed out a large number with confidence that they still have a good handful of capable programmers/adminstrators.

Certifications also make 'consulting' shops look good. It is worth the shops money and time to pay for their employees to get futher certifications, because when the sales guys shop out the programmers to a client, they can point at all those certifications and look good.

I have 3 certifications: 2 MicroSoft and 1 Sun. They are collecting a good bit of dust right now. :)

Jeff

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