Right, and that's fine, but we're not talking about experience vs certs. I'm not considering certs as a replacement for experience, I'm considering them as a supplement. Are you saying that, given otherwise identical resumes, you would completely discount certs and consider the two candidates identical?
On top of that, it seems to me that getting certs is a good way to expand your knowledge beyond what's necessary for your job. If I'm in a R&S network position and I want to switch to security it's not like any amount of experience is going to give me security knowledge, but I need that knowledge before I could get a security job. I need to get it from somewhere, why not certs?
I suppose that ties in with your "first job" comment. If I'm looking to specialize then all I need is to get enough knowledge to get my first job in that specialization and then work experience should give me pretty much everything else I need.
Heh, maybe we agree on this.