Did you ever spend your time on preparing for Java certification exams? I did. I got 5 different certificates in the beginning of my carreer. I was so proud those days about this achievement, but now I don’t even know where are those precious certificates. I just don’t see the value in those anymore.

Today, when open source projects are so active there is a way to earn yourself a measurable reputation by doing what you know the best - coding. You can contribute your best code to open source projects and when time comes to change your job instead of sending reference to “cool certificates” you can reference to your contributions.

What is your opinion? Do you think contributions to open source can replace the need to do certificates?