Certification vs. Experience: In the rest of the computer world, a company is more likely to hire a person with the proper certification than they are a person with job experience unless the experienced person is willing to work for a LOT less money; I suspect it's the same in the computer art world. For practical purposes, all the certificate means is either that you have had a specific curriculum of study, endorsed by the publisher of the software, OR that you've taken and passed a test created by an independent organization and approved by the software publisher (or both).