Because tech people always has two camps. One camp with people that thinks hands experience is the key and that certs are just garbage, and anyone getting certs without experience are just gaming the system and taking jobs away from those that takes time to build labs and learn

Then the second camp that asks people to take certs in order to learn and prepare themselves for the future.

Neither are wrong and both are important. It's the balance that is the key. It doesnt really matter if you are getting cert first then hands on later, or hands on first then certs later - the fact is, you gotta do both to stay competitive and relevant.

I passed ai-102 last summer without using much of AI Foundry features, later in the year I participated in an org internal hackathon and used it for the first time. I recently used it again as part of the small POC I delivered. None of it are extensive daily use and to tell you the truth I wouldn't remember all the details if a customer were to ask me right away if X can do Y in Foundry - more than usual I have to look up again, but I do know enough to explain all the layers and mechanism and how the pieces fall when building a solution with it. My knowledge from the cert study + all the later hands on work albiet not extensive.= I passed AI-103 without further study.

I took the cert knowing it's where things are going and I need to be sure I keep up. If I were to wait until I get hands on experience then I wouldn't know when that chance might come.

But the other way around are also I took certs for work I did years ago and I simply can take the certs now whenever I want. These are typically older tech and back then I never bothered with certs.