I think when the chips are down, when the economy has nearly halted - its a plus. A contract ended right before the Iraq war, there was no jobs in Colorado period. I was flying to New Jersey and Chicago for interviews. A local company in the mountains posted a position. I submitted. What I found out later was they took the 500 resumes they got and handed them to a consultancy who then handed 5 back saying 'you will be happy with any one of these'. I was in the five and made it through the interviews and got the job. So I think its a plus. I guess the Master Certification would be a double plus for 20x the cost.