When the Berlin came tumbling down, I moved out of the military-industrial-complex into the civilian world. Networking was just in its infancy and my military experience was a good match. In about 5 years, all of a sudden certification was necessary to move forward. As it turned out, there were many people cramming study materials and passing examinations to get ceritified. The side-effect was no matter how many certifications one had, without hands on experience certification meant you were papered certified which caused lots of problems with us seasoned veterans. Needless-to-say, just about every place needing networking specialist demanded certification as if it were on the same level as a college degree. Of course since local school systems were pumping out mulri-certified high school graduates as well as the local unemployment services, the market quickly became saturated with seasoned papered certified individuals all more than willing to accept wages and benefits far below the base line levels those of us in the field were earning. Also, it turns out many of those who took the certification process rather than the college route incurred huge student loans above what a college degree would have cost them and their current market wages aren't high enough to pay off the debt.

The problem is the business sector is looking for specific experience for the immediate now rather than general experience with the ability to adapt and move forward as new opportunties present themselves. In short, better to hire someone from the outside with the experience you need now instead of training and promoting within.