Every now and then as developer you're looking at your resume and questioning the number of certificates on it. Whether there is only one, two, or even when there are tens of certificates listed... You still urge yourself to learn, learn and eventually maybe even get certified (again) as reward.

This is exactly the reason why it doesn't matter how many certificates are listed, ever, since you still want to keep on learning and not giving anyone the impression you're standing still doing nothing.

In the community of PHP developers there are more non-certified professionals than certified professionals. PHP developers mostly don't really see the pro's of getting certified. These developers mostly honor the fact that PHP is a quick and easy language to learn and to get started with, and professionalism is found even by building a simple dynamic web page, leaving the discussion of whether this is a good or bad thing for what it is.

Certification can enable employers having more confidence in you as developer, they notice you're doing the best you can to let them know you keep on learning, improving... A glimpse look on your certification-rich resume by HR-departments can even get you on top of the candidates list faster when job-hunting. But there are more benefits to certification, next to the fact your resume looks hotter.

As a developer you can greatly improve your skills when preparing for certification. For example, learning for the PHP 5.3 certification exam practically requires you to have knowledge on multiple topics you might not ever touched before, such as streams, phar and gc. Not because questions on those subjects will be even asked for sure on the exam, but simply the fact that there might be questions on those subjects. Most developers get triggered to learn or rethink something through the fact that they might not know something or are not sure of something.

My own opinion is that certification is nice, and may actually, in this society, really help you getting a job faster, get more respect, and even enhance the speed your learning at. But, yes, there's a but... Take a look at the number of front-end developers out there, doing amazing stuff with HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, just name it... and are they certified? Hell no. Try to name 3 great certification centers for front-end developers, quite hard ain't it?

Front-end developers are probably the most underestimated (web)developers out there, they wipe your ass when you make some back-end component screw up the layout of the site. They provide the user with some occasional spiffy search pages, a window popping out of nowhere improving the user experience, highlighting input boxes when focused. Even providing the users with a gun enabling them to shoot some ducks on the site is no exception.

I chose certification, because it's there and when something's there and can help you improve faster, why not. But don't choose certification just because you will look better, it might to some, but there's a brick wall you'll run into some day.