For IT professionals looking to advance their career or move into another specialty, tech certifications present a quandary. In these post-boom years, most IT professionals now know that certification does not equal employment and a high salary. All those tests and fees have become a turnoff for many.
Others discovered that chasing down the latest and greatest certification is not a wise move: By the time they had paper in hand, the market was flooded with similarly credentialed job seekers.
So are certifications worth anything at all? Yes, according to the experts who have quantified the bonus pay that particular certifications draw. Choosing which certification to go with is another matter entirely, however.
High Demand
The top certifications in demand are in the areas of project management and security  , said David Foote, president and chief research officer of Foote Partners LLC, an IT workforce management firm. Bonus pay for project management certifications is up 7% in the last 12 months and 23% the last two years, Foote told NewsFactor.
About 10,000 people passed the vendor-neutral Project Management Professional (PMP) certification last year, said Charlie Orosz, director of curriculum and instruction at the Boston University Corporate Education Center. PMP is offered by the Project Management Institute. CompTIA also offers a certification called IT Project+.
Project management is in demand because organizations are focusing on achieving greater efficiencies with existing processes and technology, Foote said. "Companies recognize the reason projects fail is rarely the choice of vendor," Foote said. "It's mostly human error."
"Companies are looking to get the most bang for their buck in their projects," Orosz told NewsFactor.
Project management certifications are not for the faint of heart, however. Candidates for the PMP with bachelor's degrees, for example, must put in 4,500 hours of project management experience in three to six years. They must also pass an 8 part exam that costs $555.
Seeking Security
IT security, an area of certification looked down upon in the past, has become more attractive to IT professionals and employers the past two years, Foote said. While intrusion detection and firewall certifications peaked in 2001, 2002 has seen a spike in pay for management level certifications such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and the Certified Information Systems Auditor, Foote said.
The CISSP, offered by the ISC2, requires four years of direct work experience in IT security and a six-hour exam that costs $450. (continued...)
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