Pay Scale After Certifications

Sie

Im doing a MCP. MCDST and MCSA, i know its a hard question to answer but what sort of wage/pay increase should i be looking to get from my employer following this?

What wage/pay scale are other people on with these qualifications?

Munck

Why spend time on MCDST when your goal is MCSA?

I make 55K$/year with a MCSA. I got my current job having 2 MCP's. My salary has not increased allthough I completed MCSA/CCNA (one of the reasons for me looking for a new job )

garv221

I believe experience, confidence and past wages will measure what you are worth. I know people with MCSA who make $14/ hour & people with just a few select certs who make over 70k.

NPA24

That's true. It all depends on past experience and past pay. Certifications just help you get more respect and more promotions. Just my two cents!

matts5074

Where you live also makes a HUGE difference. Here a job at McDonalds pays $6 / an hour. Go 150 miles north to a tourist town and you can make $10 an hour flipping burgers. Same thing goes for IT jobs.

ajs1976

Unless you worked something out with your employer before hand, I don't think you will get much of a raise after getting the certs.

NPA24

I have noticed some job postings where you get bonuses and small raises when you achieve higher certs! That's pretty rare but it's out there.

Sie

Guess the answer is to find a new job and a new wage from there?

Is it REALLY not worth doing MCDST when completing a MSCA as well?

Is it not a case of the more the better? Not having the piece of paper to say I can do what i can do has always been the resulting factor in not getting jobs as they don’t 'tend' to test your skills and go on what your CV/Resume says.

Plus if your moving from a low-ish paid job to another with these certs how many would be likely to 'exaggerate' there past wage? In order to receive what you are worth?

SRTMCSE

In my experience MCDST means nothing if your real goal is for an MCSA, especially if you plan on doing net. admin work. I only got it b/c my previous job required it.

Sie

So the point behind MCDST?

NPA24

I attained my MCSA in 2000 but I still took the MCDST after just to get familiar since my enterprise is moving to XP images soon. So in my experience I just went backwards to just get exposure from an entry level XP test, plus I just wanted to see the difficulty of this test. In my opinion the test was about comparable to a comptia test. Can anybody else back me up on that.

TeKniques

Just thought I would chime in here. I got my MCDST because my first job in IT was a help desk position. Now I'm doing Network Administration so it was beneficial for me to get it because it was a stepping stone. Plus it is an elective for the MCSA as well. However, in my case I already had A+ and Network+ anyways.

Also, I receive a 15% salary increase after MCSE completion which is quite a bit from my current salary. So as mentioned before, those jobs do in fact exist.

Sie

Im doing both certs together though. so MCDST will not be so much of a stepping stone.

I failed to mentioned that the goverment is paying for these due to some grant scheme, so doing both cant hurt??

Can i ask, if its not too personal, how old people are here and at what ages they reached their current job or at what ages they hope to reach their choice job?

TeKniques

svickers3 wrote:

Im doing both certs together though. so MCDST will not be so much of a stepping stone.

No, but you have to take 4 exams for MCSA and MCDST could count as an elective plus another recognition on your resume. Although MCDST is 2 exams it may be beneficial to do.

svickers3 wrote:

I failed to mentioned that the goverment is paying for these due to some grant scheme, so doing both cant hurt??

Well that is nice. I get reimbursed for my tests, but I have to pass them or it's on me.

svickers3 wrote:

Can i ask, if its not too personal, how old people are here and at what ages they reached their current job or at what ages they hope to reach their choice job?

I am 25, but I have a BS degree in Computer Science which if I did not have I would not be in my current position.

SRTMCSE

svickers3 wrote:

Im doing both certs together though. so MCDST will not be so much of a stepping stone.

I failed to mentioned that the goverment is paying for these due to some grant scheme, so doing both cant hurt??

Can i ask, if its not too personal, how old people are here and at what ages they reached their current job or at what ages they hope to reach their choice job?

My last job paid for all my certs, so I can see where you're coming from so go for it. Besides MCDST is WAY easy after you do any of the server exams for MCSA/MCSE. I took both tests back to back a week after my last MCSE exam. I took the first one thinking I was gonna fail, I got like an 860, went downstairs told the girl (my coworker) to schedule me for the next one, and went back up and got a 775 on it (I sucked with the Office questions).

I'm 21. I just took my current position as Network Admin & Information Security Officer for a community bank, back in August, 2 months after I turned 21. I have no college, strictly work experience and classes from my last job. I plan on reaching my "choice" job in the next 3-5 years, after I go back to school and at least get my bachelors in Business.