Hello,
i believe that certīs and degrees are important but i believe that the certīs are more important to the employer letīs see, if a company have several people certīs that company are gold partner or whatever but the people who spend the money or not are us and in some cases the company donīt pay so well to the employe that have that certīs but the company can steel apply to projects onlarger scale.

Another thing is the certīs are so important why cisco or MIcrosoft...... etc, in the instalation or configuration donīt require your ID to prove that you are qualified to work with is products.

I have CCNA, CLP, EMC but in this days the employers ask for people with all the certs, MCSE, CCNP, CEH, EMC, HP, AVAYA, NORTEL, ALCATEL etc etc, just for one vacancie.

What a Hell they want a super genius  i believe in this if you want to be good on something you have to work on that for several years and in this days if you have all ther certīs required for a vacancie you donīt have experience because you have to study for all certīs or degrees.

This is my opinion.

Sorry for the english, is not my native language.