Depends on the individual. I see it as a perk, they pay for it, they pay for the training, and I end up studying something I may not feel compelled to study bec

Depends on the individual. I see it as a perk, they pay for it, they pay for the training, and I end up studying something I may not feel compelled to study because it's not my "day to day". Some people, for the last reason above, feel it's busy work. However, after talking to some of my colleagues who work here and those who have moved on, the certifications are great resume builders. They get you discovered on linkedin and in many cases demonstrate some level of knowledge, specifically with the AWS certifications. Edit: And yes, you can generally choose what you get to work on as long as it's related to the field, and depending on your managers, specifically to your organization. For example, we use AWS, so AWS certs are an easy yes - Salesforce too. However, I tend test the limits and even put in to see if the Google cert from this thread is eligible, but our goals for the year aren't clear yet - so we'll see.