Certification - December 2008 - (Page 30) made me leave. I consider outsourcing excellent for cutting the cost but disastrous for quality of work and stability.” Outsourcing concerns seem to revolve around several key areas: the increased workload for those left behind, the language barriers and poor levels of support that can follow afterward, and some respondents worry outsourcing is reducing the IT professional’s value and therefore reducing compensation levels. One participant wrote that outsourcing offers a “greater competitive environment [and creates a] need for solid educational certification status.” This makes sense since one of the key components in globalization is an increase in market competition, and that dovetails the many survey comments that indicated certification became a differentiator. Certification helped some IT pros find jobs after their companies or departments, or some piece therein, was outsourced. Others were able to gain certifications in their new positions and thus could expand or improve their knowledge and skills, which impacts how easy it is to find a job or be promoted once you are gainfully employed. graphics — and we primarily take into account gender, age and level of education — continue to play a significant role in determining the average annual salaries of IT professionals. An interesting find this year is related to the everincreasing gender gap in the IT industry. While the phenomenon itself isn’t new, the statistics associated with it are newsworthy. The earning gap reported between men and women almost tripled this year to $6,400 from $2,190 in 2007. The average annual salary reported by men was $59,140, compared with $52,730 for women. On the other hand, the average salary for all respondents — men and women included — amounted to $58,520 because male respondents constituted 90.4 percent of the total respondents, and females only represented a tiny sliver of the pie. Age is another component to consider when assessing the average annual salaries of IT professionals. Of course, it should be noted that age itself cannot determine or predict one’s financial earnings in the IT industry. It is intricately interwoven with other factors such as education, professional qualifications and location. The average salaries reported by our respondents and the corresponding statistics can be found in tabular form in Fig. 4. One might conclude that certification still has significant value despite the changing and frequently uncertain nature of the IT industry as a whole. This theory is supported by the 21.6 percent of survey respondents FIGURE 4: AVERAGE SALARY BY AGE that reported being extremely concerned $25.48 18 or under about recertification $19.40 19 to 24 and maintaining their $34.45 25 to 29 skills. It appears that, like cash, it’s better to have certifications than to have none. – Kellye Whitney, kwhitney@ certmag.com 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 49 50 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 or older 0 10 20 30 40 $57.01 $72.81 $82.41 $85.54 $85.98 $88.05 $94.64 $66.83 50 60 70 80 90 100 Salary (x 1,000) The Effect of demographics In keeping with our findings over the past few years, demo- 0 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE December 2008
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