I can only speak for the AWS certs I’ve seen. The associate certs don’t mean a lot. They are a low speed bump. But they are also the first step on the ladder t

I can only speak for the AWS certs I’ve seen. The associate certs don’t mean a lot. They are a low speed bump. But they are also the first step on the ladder to the more impressive ones. At the very least, they are an indicator that you’re willing to put up with some pain to start down the path towards something that might actually be useful. But to pass, you have to know the official “right” answers, and not necessarily the answers that would actually be correct and useful in the real world. The professional certs do seem to require some real experience and work to achieve. Historically, most certs haven’t been worth the paper they were printed on. But there were some that were actually an indicator that the person actually knew something useful, like Netware or Cisco certs. As for myself, after 30+ years in the business, I finally broke down and actually got a cert. It’s just an AWS CCP, which I could have gotten in my sleep. But I consider this to be the first step on my path to the professional certs.