So, the survey says – and it’s a real survey, not the small informal ones I put in this blog space occasionally – that certified folks aren’t as valuable today in comparison to people with non-certified skills. Other articles point to a worldwide IT skills shortage, which isn’t a contradiction, but certainly bodes well for those workers in the IT world. So it got me thinking – what do folks like you experience in your workplace, so I decided to ask. But first, a few thoughts on these recent articles.
(By the way, thanks to Dave Shultz for filling in last week!)
I spent an hour or so this morning reading a sample report at the Foote Partners’ web site, trying to get a handle on what the survey (link above) really says. They are professionals – and I’m not that smart, and it’s been over 20 years (gulp) since I took all sorts of classes on how to perform valid and meaningful surveys (ick) – so I’m not so sure I could have understood all the testing methodology stuff in their ($2000) most recent report anyway. However, there were some interesting tidbits in a sample report:
- The non-certified skills listed in the report were mostly technical skills, often times skills that would be included in the certifications. (I got the opposite impression from the recent Network World article that the non-certified skills were more business related.)
- The comparison is based on the pay premium – be that bonuses, higher base pay, or other – actually paid to people with those certifications or those non-certified skills.
- The survey scientifically primarily collects data from HR and management in a lot of companies, as opposed to IT workers themselves, making it more accurate (in my opinion)
- The customers for this report are the same HR and management people who were surveyed, and those like them in other companies. They buy the report to help them figure out how much to pay the IT workers.
- The report lists 3 percentiles – 10, 50, and 90 – for the amount of pay premium for each skill. (The sample report omitted the actual percentages.)
(Disclaimer – that’s just my interpretation from reading the Foote Partners’s web site.)
In short, the report’s telling a customer (HR, management) what the rest of the world is paying for each skill and certification over and above the base pay. It’s an interesting, and probably very valuable, tool for HR folks. But the report isn’t saying that certifications aren’t valuable, but just that they are now less valuable relative to some other non-certified skills tracked in their survey.
Now, what I hope to get started in the blog this week is to get some opinions about the value of Cisco certifications. They have value – but why are they valuable to you?
Today, I’d like to ask all you Cisco customers to respond. Cisco certs have an inherent value to Cisco partners in that each partner must have a number of employees with different certifications, as specified by Cisco. However, for those of you working in jobs where your relationship with Cisco is that you buy products from them (directly, or through a Channel Partner), why do you personally value Cisco certifications? Does your management? If so, are their tangible benefits, or is it just a perception? Do your co-workers value Cisco certifications? Or is even considered a bad thing to pursue various Cisco certifications? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject. And for those of you hoping to see more on NAT today, I’ll get back to it pretty soon.
