High-tech industry watchers often tout higher-than-average salaries as a driving reason to invest time and money into becoming IT certified. But in uncertain economic times, research shows IT certification details on resumes don’t always guarantee an attractive pay package for high-tech workers. The rapid change in pay rates also points to the industry’s increased interest in updated staffing models and IT service delivery options such as SaaS and cloud computing.
It makes sense that those selling IT certification training courses would argue that high-tech workers would make more money by adding to their roster of skills, but data reveals that noncertified skills also garner financial rewards. The most recent data from Foote Partners’ IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index showed that “average pay for 227 noncertified IT skills surprised the market with its first overall market gain since October 2008.” While “average pay for 211 IT certifications, by contrast, posted a small decline after a brief late 2009 recovery,” according to the quarterly update.
The economic recession isn’t the only cause for pay volatility, according to David Foote, Foote Partners co-founder, CEO and Chief Research Officer. Because the pay for noncertified and certified IT skills has been “so up and down within windows as short as three months,” Foote said in a statement, that other factors beyond the downturn are clearly in play.
“Surprisingly, it’s not the recession and recovery, at least not directly, that’s causing all the volatility. It is actually employers accelerating transitions to new staffing models,” Foote explained in the recent report.
This pay data points to other trends. In the face of desperate financial times, technology and service delivery models such as SaaS and cloud computing, for instance, offer IT organizations an opportunity to break away from traditional methods and consider more agile methods to serve customers.
“They’ve been struggling with transforming the IT workforce for years, trying to become more agile, flexible [and] nimble. … What the recession has done is get [IT organizations] ‘unstuck’ and motivated. Whether it is career optimism or the opposite – fear of losing their jobs – the result has been more willingness by IT managers to take on the challenge of constructing these new workforce and service delivery models,” Foote said. “The enormous volatility we’re seeing in the skills marketplace is a sure sign that employers are taking advantage of a rare window of opportunity to think through and execute on new staffing models.”
And the debate goes on. What do you think? Does IT certification guarantee an increase in compensation? Did the economy force IT organizations to break out of old habits and embrace new service delivery models? Please comment here or let me know your thoughts at Denise.Dubie@ca.com.
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