New Salary Survey 75 List from Certification Magazine
If there were an IT certification thunderdome, like in that one Mad Max movie that has the word "beyond" in the title, then there would probably have to be different rules. Because there are WAY too many IT certifications to have them all enter the thunderdome two-by-two. Of course, as everyone knows, the ratio of coming and going from a thunderdome is notably tilted in favor of entering as opposed to leaving. Thunderdomes are about winnowing, and this is where we pivot to the 2023 Salary Survey conducted at the end of last year by Certification Magazine. The Salary Survey conducts a thunderdome-esque winnowing each year, pitting many, many (in excess of 1,200, this year) IT certifications against each other and then creating a ranked list of just 75 chosen credentials. The so-called Salary Survey 75 list is drawn from whichever certifications are held by the largest numbers of survey respondents. The 75 credentials that reap the most responses are then ranked by the average base salary of U.S. credential holders. So if a whole lot of people who are WXYZ certified take the survey, then WXYZ will probably make the list. If most of them make about $50,000 per year, on the other hand, then it probably won't be very near the top. At any rate, this week saw the arrival of a new list (linked above), headlined, for the second year in a row, by the Certified in Rick and Information Systems Control (CRISC) credential offered by cybersecurity and IT governance professional association ISACA. The fun begins all over again in the fall, so stick a mental pin in mid-to-late September and check back then for the next Salary Survey.
The Linux Foundation Conducts State of Green Software Survey
Speaking of surveys, The Linux Foundation also conducted a survey at the end of last year. We're only flagging it here because it's topically interesting — you can't still go take the survey (or at least not by clicking the link available in the announcement of the survey posted by The Linux Foundation). You probably could have participated when the survey was announced mid-December, but there's always an end-of-year gap in the annual succession of Certification Watch newsletters when the Certification Watch space hosts some end-of-year recaps and the whole GoCertify team is at home for the holidays. At any rate, as described by The Linux Foundation, "Green software aims to reduce the carbon emissions associated with software. As such, green software is software that emits the least amount of carbon possible. This can be achieved by making software more energy efficient, using less hardware, or letting software do more when the electricity is clean and less when it's dirty." There's no immediate information about when survey results will be released, but we're intrigued to see the date when its available.
Get Your Head in the (Oracle) Cloud with Oracle University Community
Forging ahead with News Items That We Missed at the End of Last Year, there are some exciting developments happening over at Oracle University, the certification and training arm of database and cloud computing titan Oracle. A post to the Oracle University Blog at the end of November highlights the launch of Oracle University Community, an online platform created to provide social interaction and other benefits to IT professionals and others who are furthering their knowledge of Oracle tools and software. In addition to fostering the sharing of knowledge/advice among, and providing interaction with, like-minded individuals, such communities can be a great means of getting news about exam discounts or vouchers and other timely IT certification news. Other companies like Microsoft and Cisco have similar (and long-established) online communities for people who are pursuing education and certification, so Oracle is catching up to an ongoing trend with the launch of OU Community.
CompTIA Outlines Career Path for Aspiring Software Developers
We'll close out the first Certification Watch of 2023 with a nod in the direction of tech industry association CompTIA, which frequently offers advice to individuals who have set their sights on a particular IT path. Over at the official CompTIA blog, a new post by blogger Meggy Kevkhishvili offers information and guidance to individuals who are looking into a career as a software developer. There's a high level of demand for software developers across the IT industry; as noted in Kevkhishvili's post, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that the median salary offered to software developers is $120,730 (as of 2021). If you're interested in getting more information about starting out as a developer, then this post is worth your time.
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
