[TriLUG] How useful are agile certifications?

[Nathan Yinger via TriLUG]

Hey,

At work there has been some conversation about certifications, and I may be
able to get my employer to pay for some training. I would like to hear any
advice you all have about these sorts of things:

1) What software development certifications are most in-demand? (I know
this is a vague, open-ended question, but I'm pretty open to career
options).

2) Do you have any reputable suppliers of certifications to recommend?

3) I'm not sure how heavily most employers weight certifications. How much
time are they worth? Are there certain types of companies that value them
more than others?

For a bit of background, I am working at my first software job. It's agile
teams (we shuffle regularly, and I am usually a scrum master - I heard that
looks good on a resume). We write automated tests to support firmware
development on embedded systems. I'm personally not married to any
particular career path, and my interest ranges from embedded and hardware
work up the stack to web development.

Thanks,
~Nathan