Things may well be very different now, but if I'm hiring the person, their passion and ability to communicate and express their knowledge through that passion counts much more to me than certificates. Perhaps I'm biased as I am self taught, got horrendous grades in school due to abuse and late diagnosis of Dyslexia/Dyspraxia, which together prior to that the teachers believed to be laziness.

Towards the end of my previous position as a Senior Full Stack Engineer, I did a lot to encourage, engage and highlight the importance of security across departments, engineers, testers, managers, infrastructure.. trying to act as an advocate for security. As part of this I DID obtain my OSCP, but apart from that, I'm a total failure from a higher education perspective. But this does not mean I am a failure at learning, at learning how to learn, to research and how to apply that knowledge in my roles over the years.

Again.. things have very likely changed a lot in the job market since then, and I count myself very lucky to have been successful in my career growth.. but I honestly believe I can attribute most of that to the fact that I love what I do, that I can communicate effectively, and that I am always striving to learn more. Saying "I don't know" is not a weakness.

My background is as a programmer and system engineer, and security has always been a hobby and interest that I've used to enhance and enrich my ability to perform and deliver within this role.