Well, if they weren't useful, we wouldn't have 2 million H1B's working in the US. Schools teach very little technically and most folks graduating with some sort

Well, if they weren't useful, we wouldn't have 2 million H1B's working in the US. Schools teach very little technically and most folks graduating with some sort of degree in IT/CS/? only spend a couple of semesters even covering the related field. I have found that certs are useful because you can expect the applicant to at least know the basics of a Cisco Router, Checkpoint Firewall, Windows/Linux Server, etc. Obviously a CCIE will know something about Cisco Routers and Networking and some of the GIAC Certs are worth while. I know a lot of folks dismiss certs as bullshit but I've never met a CCIE/CCNP or OSCP that didn't know what they were talking about in their respective fields. At the same time there are a lot of really smart and talented people who don't have a Degree or a Cert and could put 90 % of the security field to shame and I would expect that to be true in other fields also.