Certifications do not matter.
They are HR filters.
There, I said it.
If you want to get employed a little easier, do what you must and get certified. But do not think you’ve it all figured out after you get your precious slip of paper handed to you. That’s when the real work begins.
Even as a person who doesn’t have much experience in the field of IT, I can safely say that certificates don’t matter. Why? Because they do not guarantee anything.
It’s the same as degrees. Someone with a bachelor’s degree doesn’t necessarily know much about a subject without putting some effort to learning and understanding the subject on their free time. E.g. if you’ve only programmed anything on during a university course, you’re hardly fit to be a productive coder in a working environment.
This is why it is extremely important for people to do stuff on their own. Hack things, create things. Find what gets you pumped up, maybe even a little bit addicted.
Hacking has never been about degrees, certificates, gender, color of skin, nationality or anything like that. You’re only judged by what you can do.
So go do.