Certification - December 2008 - (Page 28) Cash Is King The current economic situation has done more than throw Wall Street and various banks and credit institutions into a flaming tizzy. It also has put cash — and how and where to earn it — on the minds of IT professionals. Compensation and benefits topped the list of IT pros’ top three extreme concerns, comprising 31.8 percent of the Salary Survey responses. Job secu- from the survey respondent pool. Only 10.1 percent of participants are extremely concerned about decertification. The second-lowest area of concern involved cheating, ethics and test security, which may be due to the increasing number of performance-based certifications on the market. Like an old, familiar teddy bear, the problems associated with IT outsourcing seem to be losing their stuffing year over year. This could be because IT pros are getting used to the phenomenon. Some 64.9 percent of survey respondents said they have not been affected by outsourcing at all. The second largest respondent pool, with 20.7 percent, said they have benefited greatly, as they now work for an outsourcing company. Only 4.4 percent of respondents report losing a job or being replaced as a result of outsourcing. And roughly the same number of respondents, 4.5 percent, reported being repositioned within the same organization. IT professionals aren’t known as the chattiest of workers, likely preferring to express themselves with explosive lines of code, but those who did take time to submit comments had a wide range of responses to outsourcing. like an old, familiar teddy bear, the problems associated with IT outsourcing seem to be losing their stuffing year over year. rity came in a close second at 30.4 percent, and the state of the IT job market followed close behind at 29.7 percent. It’s likely the continuing effects of globalization, as well as the weakened economy, are reshaping the way information technology departments and organizations do business, and the IT job market is shifting accordingly. More than a quarter of respondents said they are extremely concerned about the future of IT, and 23.6 percent of survey participants report being extremely worried about employer support for certification. The issues of the value of certification and how certifications are executed stirred up the least concern Some were bad: “Outsourcing has reduced both the number of and pay for technical positions,” “My salary has been forced down and the quality of the support offered has plummeted to the lowest and cheapest common denominator” and “As a contractor it limits my opportunities.” And some were good: “Received grant diverted from E4B visa programs, allowed MCSE, CCNA, CCA, Novell, and Linux training,” “Am in the process of outsourcing our server hosting; won’t lose my job due to my senior role and key member of the management team” and “Left my old employer — took a new job with outsourcing company that values certification more and demonstrates it financially.” And some IT pros’ feelings about outsourcing straddled the fence: “I used to be a Cisco TAC Engineer in an outsourcing company, and this made some conflict between two totally different cultures which 28 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE December 2008
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