That's the problem with certification. Not the only one, of course, but one of the main ones.

IMO, work in the community is far better to show than a Perl Certification Diploma or something.

Go for CPAN modules. It's cheaper.

Go for CPAN modules. It's cheaper.

Or, if you have the money, go for training with a well trusted/known company/hacker.

People who have certificates tend to be talentless hacks who can solve every problem except a novel one.

Or they are working, or want to work for, industries and organisations that take certification seriously - for good or bad reasons. It's just a big a mistake to discard somebody because they have certification as it is to discard somebody because they don't.

Fair enough... I wish to amend my statement to "people who make a big deal out of certificates tend to be talentless hacks who can solve every problem except a novel one."