You say "people are increasingly seen in terms of existing certified skills" - now I wonder if that's really true that its more nowadays, and if it is, why... I

You say "people are increasingly seen in terms of existing certified skills" - now I wonder if that's really true that its more nowadays, and if it is, why... In the 90s employers demanded Microsoft or networking certs. This kinda thing's been going on long time. Some of us unix geeks sidestepped that nasty treadmill, as unix jobs didn't generally require formal quals (albeit some folks commanded a premium with Sun or HP certs). Nowadays you can no longer escape using *nix, for with cloud computing, you're tied to MS/Google/AWS. This may account for the perception (or indeed reality) that certs are required more these days. But as a dev (rather than ops) person you can still dodge it. Personally I think AWS certs are a PITA - lots of effort spent for a piece of paper with a limited shelf life which doesn't necessarily prepare you for the actual tech skills needed in your immediate job. IMHO, as always in the tech industry, one has to spot the fads and treadmills and stand well clear ;)