2008 IT Salary List

Has anyone looked at the latest one? I think some of there reported figures are way off:

http://www.certmag.com/images/article/1208/CM1208_Fig2_TopCerts_R1.jpg

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Comments

Aldur

haha, holy crap! You are right Bokeh, they are way off.

CCENT..... 67k!
CCNA...... 80k!!!

I don't know of a single person with just a CCENT or just an CCNA that is making that kind of money.

Maybe the salaries were skewed by the fact that somebody with a higher cert may ALSO have a CCNA or CCENT..... idk, but those numbers are way the hell off

jamesp1983

Some of those figures seem like they are WAY off.

jryantech

jimmypizzle83 wrote:

Some of those figures seem like they are WAY off.

Seems like they are using multiple certs with each average... ????

Because I'm sure there are A+ certification people who make 25k a year and some who make 60k because they are also CCNA certified.

But these numbers are fine with me if they are true... lol

Slowhand

Dude, I'm getting RIPPED OFF!

zen master

People really misrepresent this field sometimes. I don't think that I was given realistic salary expectations when I was at school or university. I'm not surprised that cert mag would try to make it seem like certifications are going to lead to you landing big bucks tho ... it's in their best interest to do so.

Daniel333

Before you can analyze any set of statistics, make sure you look at the statstically cohort first.

I think it was something like average experience of 10 years. This stands to reason, most your Geek Squad kids making $30k a year are not doing salary surveys.

There was also a segment in there that listed a very large percentage of those people having 4 year degrees.

Unless you, yourself fall into the key demographic this data really doesn't apply. But it's certainly useful for a company looking to hire and recruit an experienced employee.

dtlokee

Don't bleive statistics, they can be used to prove anything.

Turgon

Yup lies..damn lies and statistics

royal

72.56% of statistics are made up... including this one.

vCole

MCDST is $63k?! I think that's backwards, I'm makng $36k!

jamesp1983

zen master wrote:

People really misrepresent this field sometimes. I don't think that I was given realistic salary expectations when I was at school or university. I'm not surprised that cert mag would try to make it seem like certifications are going to lead to you landing big bucks tho ... it's in their best interest to do so.

I was told with an AS I would make 50k. I was also told with a CCNA and 2 years of experience I should expect 120k by another school.

zen master

FadeToBright wrote:

MCDST is $63k?! I think that's backwards, I'm makng $36k!

I'm a CCNA and CEH with a 4 year degree and 5 years in the field, and I'm not making 80k. What's interesting is that the CISSP average salary is comparatively low. Why is that?

blargoe

Bokeh wrote:

Has anyone looked at the latest one? I think some of there reported figures are way off:

http://www.certmag.com/images/article/1208/CM1208_Fig2_TopCerts_R1.jpg

Aren't they always?

pwjohnston

zen master wrote:

People really misrepresent this field sometimes. I don't think that I was given realistic salary expectations when I was at school or university. I'm not surprised that cert mag would try to make it seem like certifications are going to lead to you landing big bucks tho ... it's in their best interest to do so.

What you mean I can't goto computertraining.com, or i got certs.com. or whateverjokernewstartupitschool.com and work really hard and get my (insert radio voice here) "Microsoft Certified Professional" and be making (again radio announcer voice) FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR (in lawyer speak) on average and become and invaluable and recession proof employee, the guy everyone needs . . . . . . With no training what so ever?????

You sir are a liar!

aordal

Those radio commercials give me so much hope though!

skrpune

Bokeh wrote:

Has anyone looked at the latest one? I think some of there reported figures are way off:

http://www.certmag.com/images/article/1208/CM1208_Fig2_TopCerts_R1.jpg

BWA-HAHAHAHAHA! I think "way off" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Over $60K for an A+? Over $70K for MCTS? This is so poorly presented. Sure, they have a graph on the next page indicating that only ~21% of those polled had just one cert (meaning that nearly 80% had 2+ certs), but that totally skews the average salary per cert. They really should have done a separate polling or separate representation of the average salaries for those who had just one cert so that it could be a more accurate representation of that individual cert's "value."

At least they were semi-responsible & put up average salaries by age group. Those look a lot more realistic...

BradleyHU

jimmypizzle83 wrote:

Some of those figures seem like they are WAY off.

SEEM??? there's no doubt that they ARE way off, no just seem like it...i just smh @ that list...

BeaverC32

skrpune wrote:

At least they were semi-responsible & put up average salaries by age group. Those look a lot more realistic...

I don't know....I am 24 and make more than twice what they say is the average...and I live in a low cost-of-living area. I really don't know what the point of these surveys are, because you can't use them even for a general ballpark estimate on what you should be making.

To simply rank salaries by age group, for example, is meaningless without also explicitly comparing the certs the individual holds, college education, years of experience, etc. Someone who is 24 can have 8 years of experience or could just be starting out. There are just too many variables to account for...

I just think if people aren't aware of this, they go into these certifications expecting a huge pay increase once they grab a few certs. This is NOT the case (with the rare exception). There is no simple "this cert = this pay rate" formula.

Daniel333

There are just soooo many variables. Not sure how many people did the survey, but it would require some serious breaking down the of the group in order to get any meaningful information from it.

I would like to see it broken down by region, age, education and then certs. And then you might have a slightly valid piece of data.

networker050184

Man that survey is dead on accurate!

Next cert fro me is BCSD so I can make the big bucks!

HeroPsycho

I held an MCSE 2003 at the beginning of the year, and I added MCITP and MCTS, both of which according to the survey have lower salaries on average. Damn, I f#*%ed up!

mikej412

I'm in your survey skewing the average.

Turgon

mikej412 wrote:

I'm in your survey skewing the average.

Me too. I think these surveys are very hit and miss!

UnixGuy

Aldur wrote:

haha, holy crap! You are right Bokeh, they are way off.

CCENT..... 67k!
CCNA...... 80k!!!

I don't know of a single person with just a CCENT or just an CCNA that is making that kind of money.

Maybe the salaries were skewed by the fact that somebody with a higher cert may ALSO have a CCNA or CCENT..... idk, but those numbers are way the hell off

I doubt if someone with these certs ONLY can find a job to begin with !