[wpietri]

I think it depends a lot on the employer.

Some employers believe they have the competence to directly evaluate job-relevant skills. They will lean heavily on practical interviews and discussion of actual work experience.

Other employers are much more credential oriented because they can't tell a good developer from a bad one. Sometimes that's because there aren't many technical people in the company. More often, it seems, it's because hiring is done by people who are not working developers themselves. (E.g., HR screens resumes, interviews mainly done by non-techincal hiring managers.)

Since I'm of the former sort, I look especially hard for developers who don't have the "right" credentials. Not only are they more likely to have certain valuable characteristics than people who take the prescribed path, they're also likely to be overlooked by organizations that value credentials, and so easier to hire.