Overall cert pay down, but certain specialties are growing

Increased interest in offshore outsourcing has eroded premium pay for IT skills and certifications, according to Foote Partners’ Quarterly Hot Technical Skills and Certification Pay Index report.

“As more work is transferred offshore or at least directed away from IT full-timers, premium pay becomes unnecessary,” says David Foote, president and chief research officer for Foote Partners. “This is a major shift for skills and certs pay, and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why certification pay is just now beginning to collapse after a pretty healthy run during the last recession.”

Overall bonus pay for 57 certifications studied in the report fell by 4.1% in the first half of 2003. Among those posting the biggest decreases were Webmaster/Internet certifications, beginner certifications and database certifications. However, there are a few exceptions. Project management, security management, security auditing and Unix and Windows administration have all increased in value over the past 12 months.

In terms of stand-alone skills pay, messaging/groupware, networking, applications development/programming languages and enterprise applications skills took the biggest hit in the first six months of 2003. Areas that showed the strongest growth include XML, VoiceXML, voice over IP and Linux.

The research predicts growing demand over the next year for skills and certifications related to these categories:

* Security

* Linux

* XML/Web services

* VoIP

* Wireless

* Enterprise project management

* Web-enabled analytics, management applications

* SAP/ABAP

* Storage

I suggest you check out the report for a more detailed look at how specific certifications and tech skills fared in terms of growth and how much they contribute to overall compensation. Go to https://www.footepartners.com/1H03FPpressreleaseRev2.pdf