I don't have any certs (apart from malformed X509 files..) so I can't speak of their effectiveness. What has worked for me is having a strong presence in open s

I don't have any certs (apart from malformed X509 files..) so I can't speak of their effectiveness. What has worked for me is having a strong presence in open source. I just show people one of my projects like [1] and nobody asks about certs or education, ever. I spend most of my free time on these projects so cultivating a sizeable project might not be a suitable route for anyone who has a life outside of computers, though having some kind of publicly available utility where a prospective employer can check out your coding style and skills is probably a decent way to stand out amidst a sea of applicants. [1] https://github.com/guidovranken/cryptofuzz https://github.com/guidovranken/cryptofuzz