With those caveats in mind, here are some numbers to chew on:

Certification AvgSalary
MCTS: SQL Server $88,110
MCTS: .NET Web $86,846
MCTS: .NET Windows $91,438
MCTS: .NET Dist Apps $84,567
MCTS: BizTalk 2006 $87,467
MCTS: MOSS 2007 $78,033
MCTS: Exch07 Config $84,157
MCTS: SharePoint (all) $92,585
MCTS: Vista Config $77,071
MCTS: Vista/Offc desk $82,840
MCTS: SharePoint 3.0 $92,071
MCTS: WinServ08 App $87,849
MCTS: WinServ08 AD $88,274
MCTS: WinServ08 NW $89,143

MCITP: Ent Admin $86,825
MCITP: Ent Msg Admin $79,727
MCITP: DB Developer $84,714
MCITP: Cnsmr Support $97,608
MCITP: Ent Support $72,649

MCPD: Ent App Dev $94,333
MDPD: .NET Windows $91,438
MCPD: .NET Enterprise $94,333

Let me expand the preceding initialisms, so those who may not already know them can understand the hierarchy. MCTS represents the entry-level MS certs, and stands for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist. MCITP is the admin/application mid-level tier and stands for Microsoft Certified Information Technology (IT) Professional. MCPD is the developer mid-level tier and stands for Microsoft Certified Professional Developer. There’s even a Master tier above the MCPD on the development side and the MCITP on the admin/application side, but it’s still being rolled out (it hasn’t even earned a slot in the chart of MS certifications on their own site yet).

What does this single collection of salary numbers have to tell us? I’m not sure anything I say next should be considered Gospel, but I feel safe making the following claims anyway:

1. The new Microsoft certs are clearly on the radar. They’ve been out for almost three years now and are starting to build momentum, attain name recognition, and are acquiring definite value in the marketplace.
2. Old-line MS topics related to network and server administration, and even Exchange, appear to be taking a back seat to newer applications and technologies, especially SharePoint. I have to think that some of this reflects a way to acquire expertise in new areas quickly and directly, and guess that this balance will change over time.
3. Demand for Windows Server 2003/2008 and new-line technologies must be very strong and pretty new, or I don’t think we’d see the MCTS credentials matching (and in some cases, exceeding) MCITP and MCPD credentials in pay. I’m guessing that this balance will shift over the next couple of years as more companies and organizations jump onto the Server 2008 bandwagon, and more IT professionals draw on more experience in these areas to advance from MCTS to MCITP status.

No matter what your take on these numbers and what they mean might be, you have to admit that something interesting is going on here. I hope this helps give some impetus to read, and some interest in reading, my upcoming series of blogs on the MCTS, MCITP, and MCPD certifications that will follow soon.

–Ed–

Industry observers and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics attribute this phenomenon to a function of supply and demand. That is, salaries continue to go up because there are more jobs looking for IT professionals than there are IT professionals looking for jobs. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But alas, the picture isn’t completely rosy, though the situation is improving across the board for IT professionals, so that even entry level positions should be starting to open up. That said, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics also forecasts losses of 13,000 IT jobs for June (which gives you a good idea of when the survey was conducted) with total IT job losses for 2008 at 44,000. With the latest report from the same agency in early September raising unemployment to a higher-than-expected 6.1 percent, these number may also be on their way up as well.

To me one of the most interesting data points from this survey is that average age and number of years in IT has increased by more than one year since the previous survey in 2007, which indicates that the population being surveyed is pretty static. By extension this means that very few, if any, newcomers at the entry level are feeding into this population. As the survey’s analyst/reporter observes “That’s disconcerting if it provides some evidence that…fewer college graduates will fill IT roles as older workers retire.” An aging demographic poses all kinds of interesting problems, particularly as a cohort (demographics talk for a group of people about the same age, or within 5 years to either side of some midpoint) ages toward the retirement. With the average age of IT professionals surveyed at 42.7, figuring on a retirement age of 67 (by the time we get to 2033, it may be even higher than that!), that means we could be facing serious staffing issues in about 25 years.

Also, quite interestingly, the mean salary for individuals with MCP certification or better is about $7,500 less than that for individuals with no certifications (which I have to believe vindicates my recent blogs and contentions that soft skills play an important role in job success and pay, perhaps more so than do certifications nowadays). That said, I also see very interesting and sometimes surprising numbers for those who’ve already earned some of the new MS credentials: $82,420 for the new MCTS on Vista/Office Desktops, $92,017 for MCTS on SharePoint Services 3.0 Configuration, and an astounding $97,608 for an MCITP on Computer Support Technician. Those interested in MS credentials, particularly the new ones, will want to dig into Chart 4 (link below).

Of the charts in this story, readers are likely to find the following of great interest:

1. Chart 3: Average Base Salary by Job Title
2. Chart 4: Average Base Salary by Microsoft Certification
3. Chart 5: Average Salary by Microsoft Product Expertise
4. Chart 6: Average Salary by Technology Expertise

The section on “Why Certification Matters” is probably also worth a quick read. I’ll be discussing some of these points, and my own perspective on same, in my next blog, in fact.

Thanks, and enjoy!

–Ed–

There are lots of factors that go into answering salary questions with any degree of specificity, which explains why my answer was pretty vague, and why the range of numbers provided ($35K-85K per year) was also pretty large. Just to give you an idea of what kind of information is needed to produce a more precise and meaningful answer, here’s a list of things this person might have told me to get a narrower and more relevant number range in reply:

1. Location: local cost of living has a profound impact on pay.
2. Education: number and type of degrees has a significant impact on pay.
3. Certifications: number and type of certs can have some impact on pay, depending on which ones and how current they are.
4. Experience: number of years of work experience, and type of work experience, even if irrelevant to the job at hand (as you might expect for an entry-level IT job) can still have an impact on salary offers. Same thing applies to prior military or long-term volunteer experience, such as Job Corps, Peace Corps, and so forth.
5. Technical Skills and Knowledge: If a job calls for or might benefit from specific skills or knowledge, a candidate who possesses such skills or knowledge can’t help but be perceived and valued more highly than one who does not.

If you look at good IT salary surveys, such as the annual reports from Certification Magazine or CertCities.com, you’ll see that they take most, if not all, of these factors into account when they report on the “salary value” of various IT certifications. Likewise, if you read reports from companies that specialize in compensation information, such as Foote Partners, you’ll see they dig even more deeply into these kinds of relevant details.

It’s just another illustration of the old principle “The more you put in, the more you get back out.” This applies to researching salaries for IT positions, just as it does for many other things in life.

–Ed–