I used to have a bunch of Cisco and other vendor certs but all have expired.. I should look at them again but they are only really useful if I was going to move to a different job, my current employer doesn’t care about certs.
Discussion
I think it's important, but yeah, good on your employer. Applied knowledge matters so much more than being a professional test taker.
Yeah I think the Cisco certs can provide a good foundation but practical experience is more valuable. I’ve come across some people who have certs all the way up to CCIE level but struggle with real world situations, and one of the best network engineers I work with has never done any formal certs.
💯 Reminds me of many "black belts". ;)