Re: Adobe certification questions
I agree with your comment about the Blog. In my eperience, challenging the knowledge of a particular subject in which people consider themselves "experts" will result in hard feelings. I've taken a fair number of the ACE exams (Is that redundant?) and I've scored on both sides of the Blogger's 81%... I do find the tests to be somewhat poorly written, but I've never come across a question where there wasn't a clear answer (even if I didn't pick it!)
Now to your question; In an organization for which I worked in my past life in marketing, certification of any kind was considered in your yearly review. It was a delicate topic, and what counted for "job critical" certification was always up for discussion.
For example: A seasoned level 3 artist who uses Photoshop, Illustrator and (at the time) Quark for page layout received a certification in the Adobe apps and at review time, he expected consideration for his "hard work" in attaining the certificate. This artist had intimate knowledge of Photoshop before hand and his weakness (if he had one) was integration... how to get his art into a page. It was clear from our prior experience that the certification did not even begin to tax his knowlege of the software. The certification did nothing more than put Adobe's stamp on his knowledge. This alone is not valuable.
Now if a level 1 artist, new to the field and struggling with proficiency had acheived the same certification, this is valuable and would be rewarded.
In terms of getting a +new+ job, a strong portfolio of work with corresponding certification is impressive; especially to non-experts. You may enter an organization as a level 2 or 3 artist rather than starting at the bottom or, after proving your proficiency in a low-level position you may be promoted more quickly.
Keeping this in mind, I have to say that in my experience the possesion (or lack) of certification is neither a career maker nor breaker. When employers really want to see them, they'll be up front about needing to have them.
-Brian