A degree/certificate/certification is a signal based on reputation of granting institution, requisite work, and quality of others possessing the signal. I am a

A degree/certificate/certification is a signal based on reputation of granting institution, requisite work, and quality of others possessing the signal. I am a huge fan of udacity, so I personally would take a udacity nano degree at higher value than an average certificate. I think their pedagogical approach delivers 2-5x the average course hour worth of knowledge per udacity hour. (1 he udacity ~= 2-5 hrs normal course). Right now there's an enormous pool of self taught developers who can only point to portfolios to demonstrate their competence, and a portfolio is heavily, heavily bias able with a little bit of sales and marketing talent. In the long run, the question is: how much do you have to know to get the nano degree?