While being a Certified Professional Geologist has not provided me with any extra income personally in the job I held before I retired, I feel it has inspired me to always make sure I know what I'm talking about when weighing in on something. There are a number of problems like groundwater flow, shoreline erosion, land subsidence and wellhead protection where input from someone who can apply Geologic principals to the situation can help craft a better solution. For example, I feel it is possible to "over-engineer" a solution to a problem like shoreline erosion to the point where the result is not a true solution to the problem. In my volunteer job I often notice the wrong solution to erosion in aerial photos when I'm using the photos for something entirely unrelated. Certification provides a way to assure useful information is being brought into a discussion.