15 top paying certifications

MrAgent

I saw this today. I haven't heard of a couple of these.

15 Top-Paying Certifications for 2015

Lexluethar

Funny i used global knowledge for my VMware classes and taken a few of their survey's. Heard of most of those - kinda surprised PMP is up that high on the list - same with ITIL (although most companies aren't following the principles which means a lot of people with that cert can help those companies).

Seems like the most realistic salary list i've seen for a while. I saw one a while back saying the A+ was worth like 75k, Net+ work like 80k. I about choked on my breakfast when i read those silly numbers.

networker050184

Not sure about most because I don't work in those fields, but the networking ones are certainly very far off from reality. CCDA and JNCIA? Yeah... no.

Params7

I was expecting CCNA to be listed with 80k so I could have a chuckle.

Mike-Mike

i need to get my CISA

joelsfood

You have to remember that the highest paying certifications also tend to be the rarest, which means they don't end up on lists like this because the surveyor doesn't get enough responses to be statistically significant. So always take surveys like this with a large grain of salt.

danny069

Welp, looks like its time to hit the cert books again.

datacomboss

Can't believe CNE and CNA are on the list in 2015.

Would be hard to get an IT job paying $95K with just ITIL v3 Foundation.

datacomboss

Lexluethar wrote: »

Heard of most of those - kinda surprised PMP is up that high on the list.

That is within the expected range for an experienced PM.

blargoe

What a shock, a training reseller hyping certifications!!! (Not that I have a problem with certifications, but take these surveys with a grain of salt).

Chitownjedi

blargoe wrote: »

What a shock, a training reseller hyping certifications!!! (Not that I have a problem with certifications, but take these surveys with a grain of salt).

I'd say a spoon of salt

OctalDump

Also, to qualify this a bit further. What it seems to mean is that for people holding a particular certification, this is the average salary. That emphatically DOES NOT mean that if you get a particular certification you can expect to earn that much money.

For example, if you look at those top 3, they all require a number of years working in that field before you can get the certification. That means that the experience is likely to have some effect on the earnings, probably a much bigger effect than holding the cert. In general, this holds for all the certs - most people get certs after some experience.

Also, with these higher level certs, apart from being held by people with experience they are more likely to have other certifications and experience. This is likely the reason that PMP and Scrum Master are on the list. Project management qualifications are more important for those in management roles - it's more that them being senior is the cause for them having PMP rather than PMP getting them the promotion.

There's also ITILv3 on the list, again this is likely because people working in roles where process and procedure are important (larger organisations) are required to have this. Larger organisations are going to skew to higher paid, simply because there is more room for specialists and managers who earn more.

If you think that "If I go and get this cert, then I will earn $112k" you are going to be disappointed.

TechGuru80

Although lists like that help in determining what good certifications are....they do not tell the full story. For instance I can think of people who have CCNA and several years of experience making $85-95s.........and people with CISSP making maybe around $80k.

daschil

Are these D.C. salaries? End of career salaries? They seem way too high across the board, unless other factors were taken into consideration (like other certs held).

OctalDump

daschil wrote: »

Are these D.C. salaries? End of career salaries? They seem way too high across the board, unless other factors were taken into consideration (like other certs held).

The problem is that they don't give you the kind of information that you really want, which is more like "If I get cert x, how much should I expect my salary to go up by?". What they have is very fuzzy "The people that have these certs, have this average salary". The thing is, you can imagine that people that are in senior or executive roles, with 10+ years experience and double Masters degrees could hold a whole bunch of certs like Scrum Master, PMP, ITIL foundations, but it's the 10+ years and the double Masters that make the real difference to their earnings.

Possibly, the management thing could also skew the results, since they are reporting "mean" and not median. It would only take a few very high earners to pull up the mean.

This is also a marketing exercise, so...

dustervoice

I have CISSP and CISM so... $110k +$118K =$238K

wd40

dustervoice

Wrong!, you missed ITIL
110 + 118 + 95 = $323K

dustervoice

wd40 wrote: »

dustervoice

Wrong!, you missed ITIL
110 + 118 + 95 = $323K

I didn't add the 95k for ITIL as i donated that portion of my salary to charity!

danny069

The title doesn't make the man, the man makes the title.

Lexluethar

I agree, definitely have to take this stuff with a grain of salt - especially considering where the survey came from. I mean they have a vested interest in getting people hyped about certifications.

Cyberscum

I always love the pictures they have for these blogs. The people are always composed, clean and focused.

If they were to take an actual picture of my work area and me working, it would include:

1. Blood shot eyes
2. Mounds of paperwork
3. Multiple cups of coffee
4. Various wrappers from snacks

BTW I know plenty of CISSP's and very few make over 110k in my area.

markulous

This is still slightly better than the CompTIA one I saw last year. It said the average salary of someone with an A+ was like 80k, N+ 85k, and S+ 90k (or something like that).

zcarenow

my manager would laugh at this. only bachelor's degree and no cert, but making close to 150k.

Dakinggamer87

I always take these with a grain of salt but it's always an interesting read.