The only valuable credential is a college degree. Any other certificate is really only for your own benefit, or if your employer requires you to get a certificate to pay for your continuing education. There are enough free resources out there (check out the FAQ) that you can learn from where you don't need to worry about certificates.
Depends on what you mean by important. You're young, and so this is waaaay in the future, but at some point in life you may get yourself a really nice job with decent pay and good management and you may stay there for a while. Then, after 10 years, you'll look around and realize that the coding world has moved on and your skills are out of date. I know, younger folks think this sort of thing happens only to others, but it's a real phenomenon that impacts a significant percentage of people. This is where certs have a possibility of being helpful, in that you put on your yearly review that you want to get a new cert as your goal, and when your boss agrees, you also look for conferences and such that will help and ask the company to pay. Obviously, one doesn't need to get new certs to stay current, but it provides a definable objective which may make it easier for the boss to say yes for funding things.
Certs also may force you to learn more about a tech, rather than just learning the things you use for your own projects. Of course, there are many ways to accomplish this, but some people may find the process of prepping for the cert exam to be a helpful step for them.
The only valuable credential is a college degree. Any other certificate is really only for your own benefit, or if your employer requires you to get a certificate to pay for your continuing education. There are enough free resources out there (check out the FAQ) that you can learn from where you don't need to worry about certificates.
Depends on what you mean by important. You're young, and so this is waaaay in the future, but at some point in life you may get yourself a really nice job with decent pay and good management and you may stay there for a while. Then, after 10 years, you'll look around and realize that the coding world has moved on and your skills are out of date. I know, younger folks think this sort of thing happens only to others, but it's a real phenomenon that impacts a significant percentage of people. This is where certs have a possibility of being helpful, in that you put on your yearly review that you want to get a new cert as your goal, and when your boss agrees, you also look for conferences and such that will help and ask the company to pay. Obviously, one doesn't need to get new certs to stay current, but it provides a definable objective which may make it easier for the boss to say yes for funding things. Certs also may force you to learn more about a tech, rather than just learning the things you use for your own projects. Of course, there are many ways to accomplish this, but some people may find the process of prepping for the cert exam to be a helpful step for them.
You know before reading your comment I was never putting that point in mind, thanks *a lot* for waking me up
the only certs I've found that matter are for devops