If someone is certified, he is certainly valuable to a company.But what for a non-certified? Manager always want to be comfortable with the level of their staff so that they can continue to sleep well :-).So they're looking for the maximum certified quality.
The problem with certification is that it doesn't measure all the skills that someone can have.And moreover it makes a uniform knowledge, since everybody has to know the same thing.
And what for very specialised person? They could do 100% on certain topic of certification but low score on the others.
I've passed two certifications, it's true that i feel better in my work since I have answers to questions that others don't even think about.
I'm faster to code and to avoid problems.
In conclusion, certification is a great experience, a great help in career and to find job.But it's like all the exams that I know, far from the every day job.