IT Certification Has an Inevitable Relationship with Salary

It is often asked, is there an inevitable relationship between certification and salary? The answer is a resounding “Yes”. The certification process can really learn a lot of practical skills, and companies can use it as a “green card” for employees’ ability appraisal. At the same time that brings higher benefit to the enterprise, the certification person wants higher salary return is also natural. According to IDC, the IT certification(spoto) market was $2.5 billion in revenue in 1999 and will reach $4.1 billion in 2003, with an annual growth rate of 15 percent. It can be seen that both individuals and enterprises have made great efforts to improve their skills. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they had to bear the cost of multiple certifications. Of these,25 percent are paid by the company, and 45 percent are paid solely by individuals, including documentation fees, tuition fees, test fees, and so on. Certification personnel first to buy some reference books, product documents and simulation test questions, but also to pay a high price of tuition, examination fees.

Of course they will be careful about the cost of the investment. Now, it seems, more and more money is being spent on materials and less and less on choosing training providers. The average number of certifications of respondents was 3.3. In addition,85 percent said they would like to earn another certification within the next year. Would they invest a lot of money here if certification didn’t bring in higher income?

Certification Ownership and Average Salary

How much the certificate returns, to a large extent is related to the authority of the certification body. Clearly, Microsoft’s MCP revenue is not as good as Cisco’s CCNA.

Certification Type and Certification Passing Rate

Which certificate is more representative of the industry trend and has a higher input-output ratio?

Because certification costs are different, in the evaluation, the first thing to look at which certification has the highest pass rate. The analysis showed that the top four were MCP(41%), MCSE(32%), MCP+I(19%), and Novell’s CAN(16%). It can be seen that Microsoft’s certification [az-900 ] is far ahead both in the rate of passing or in the number of categories.

Certification Company and Average Annual Salary

The type of certificates a respondent has can be a proxy for his or her salary. So we gathered information from six certification agencies. They are Cisco, HP, Lotus, Microsoft Novell, and Oracle. Overall, the average salaries of Oracle and Lotus certification personnel are in the top tier, while Microsoft certification personnel are in the bottom tier. Oracle certified employees earn 33% more than CompTIA and 17% more than Microsoft certified employees. Of course, income is not only related to these certificates, but also affected by other factors.

By analyzing the earnings of different certification holders, we can help people choose a more practical certification. The analysis found that the average salary increase for licensees was 12 percent, or $5,821. Here’s a breakdown of the salary increase: Microsoft certifications increase 10.9 percent, or $5,778; Cisco certifications benefited the most, with a 17.8 percent increase, or $10,606, and CCNA certifications had the highest returns. Annual salary growth for Novell related certificators is 13%, or approximately $7,080; For CNA and CNE certified employees, the salary growth rate was 23% higher than the average; Oracle certificated employees didn’t grow as much as Novell, but the actual salary increase was much higher, at 12.1% for $7,471 (the average annual salary for Oracle certificated employees was $62,000 versus $54,500 for Novell). Lotus certificators received a 10.1% annual salary increase and their associates received a $6,168 annual salary increase, which was higher than the overall average for both CLP and CLS certification. HP certified annual salary growth of 11.1%, an absolute increase of $6,098; persons who get through  HP Technical Support, Maintenance, and IT Professional System Administrator certification can earn 5% more than the average annual salary. Though earnings vary from person to person, there is one thing that is encouraging: all those who have passed the certification have seen their earnings increase to varying degrees. Cisco certification has the greatest gold content. Although Microsoft certifications are less lucrative, they can add $5,058 to $5,778 a year to a certificate-holder’s salary, which is a lot.