Sharepoint - Are SharePoint certifications worthwhile?

To employers, they can be beneficial as they may need more certified people in order to maintain their Gold Partner status within specific competencies.

As for a personal level, it won't have much clout if you don't have the work experience behind it, but if it's all you have (ie: little or no experience) then it can show employers you are keen and passionate for the platform, and will appeal to employers looking to hire a junior.

To be honest; certifications have never made me get a job or a new client. But it sure helps your partner status for your company, as djeeg explains. The best way to show off your skills is well documented cases and references!

Currently the certifications are quite easy to get through, with a high score, even if you're not that experienced. One good thing though, is that questions on topics that you're not that familiar with will pop up - and if you're smart you digest that and learn those areas.

Having the certifications listed on your CV/LinkedIn account will also give you masses of recruiter e-mails :-)

Regarding the SharePoint Microsoft Certified Master, which is a 3 week training and a couple of exams/labs. That's a totally different deal. It costs you tons of money and gives you the best SharePoint training you can get. You can't expect to do the MCM with mediocre skills - you already need to be a really highly skilled dev/it-pro/architect. unfortunately - clients are currently not that aware of this certification. So consider it very carefully, so it's really worth it.

Having certifications is now more valuable, as at the end of last year Microsft changed the rules for partners.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2010/08/24/mpn-it-s-a-major-evolution-not-just-a-name-change-here-s-a-review-of-some-of-the-key-changes-to-microsoft-s-new-partner-program.aspx

One big change, means employees can no longer be used for two fields:

Probably the biggest point that isn’t always well understood, besides getting used to the fact that the old “levels” no longer apply, is that the new Gold competencies will require 4 unique MCPs. This means if you want to have 2 Gold competencies, you will need at least 8 MCPs (4 each with the appropriate certs for the respective competencies) – this is a major change as you likely know. You cannot “double book” MCPs on multiple Gold competencies.

So it makes you more valuable if you have certs the company needs. Here is the stream for SharePoint:

https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/competencies/40125152