I have debated on blogging about the general idea that just because someone has a certification it doesn’t validate their skill. Controversial I know, especially to my friends at Salesforce.
Don’t get me wrong the exam to achieve the anointing status of “Salesforce Certified Administrator”, isn’t to be taken lightly, in fact it has a high failure rate, due to its complexity. Passing in my opinion illustrates that the person knows where the configuration points are, but doesn’t mean by any means they can make Salesforce dance.
After 10 years of being immersed in Salesforce my brain has been abused by many hundred Salesforce orgs, the thought of best practices, 
the integration of custom code and Salesforce Appexchange applications and the value they add.
To become a competent Salesforce Admin like most of my colleagues I have owned or managed many medium to large org’s, integrations and deployments all well prior to finding time to take the Administrator Exam. Conversely I have met and hired people that have passed the exam and haven’t had a clue on how to convert an actual business process into a Salesforce asset.
Here is my point. If you need to hire a Salesforce Admin for your team, don’t overlook someone who doesn’t have a certification and don’t overvalue those that do. Find a way to ferret out their true skillset as it relates to what your business organization needs and how they can translate that into an actual tangible outcome inside of Salesforce.