Miles and merit
Before I landed my first job in IT, I believed that certifications were king as they took less time to fill your knowledge than experience as text books are typically written with real world experiences in mind already. However, we all may have similar experiences with varying scenarios. Many people I've come in contact with agree that "miles count over merit" and I can't help but see their point of view. It's like having either theory or practical, realistically you need both, practical to say "I know how to do do it" and theory to properly understand it and say "it works this way because....". Having said that, from what I've seen, unless you work for a company that provides consulting or engineering services (contractors that can show customers proof of knowledge), if you have proven history to show that you can do the job, that is all I've seen hiring managers really care about.
