1. PMP: Project Management Professional – $105,750
2. CISSP: Certified Information Systems Security Professional – $103,299
3. MCSD: Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer – $97,849
4. MCDBA: Microsoft Certified Database Administrator – $95,950
5. CCDA®: Cisco Certified Design Associate – $94,799
6. MCAD: Microsoft Certified Application Developer – $93,349
7. VCP-DV: VMware Certified Professional Datacenter Virtualization – $92,400
8. CNE: Certified Novell Engineer – $91,350
9. ITIL v3 Foundation – $90,900
10. CCA: Citrix Certified Administrator – Citrix XenServer 6 – $90,850
11. MCITP: Database Administrator – $90,200
12. MCTS: SQL Server 2005 – $90,100
13. MCT: Microsoft Certified Trainer – $89,949
14. CCNP®: Cisco Certified Network Professional – $89,749
15. CCA: Citrix Certified Administrator – Citrix XenDesktop 5 – $89,499

So, the above figures are what certification holders have reported to be making this year. And here’s another set of certifications, which Techrepublic had projected in the beginning of the 2013:

1. MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) – Salary Range: $52,000 to $115,000
2. MCSE: Private Cloud – Salary Range: $52,000 to $102,000
3. PMP (Project Management Professional) – Salary Range: $65,000 to $93,000
4. VCP (VMware Certified Professional) – Salary Range: $59,000 to $80,000
5. CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) – Salary Range: $65,000 to $111,000

 Now, what conclusions can we draw out of 2013?

First of all, ITIL, CISSP, PMP, fancy upper level Microsoft certifications and cloud-based certifications are definitely worth looking into. If you are building your Cisco career, be prepared that your hard-earned CCNA certification won’t pay as high as you could hope for. Yet, your salary will grow as you keep moving up the Cisco ladder. And, given the fact that Cisco has given a massive revamp its certifications this year and stepped up the CCENT/CCNA exam difficulty, we expect the salary level for these candidates to grow next year.

If you are looking at these certifications and paths trying to figure out the direction to take your IT career in 2014, we suggest that besides looking at figures and trends (which are no doubt important), you listen to yourself and do your best focusing on something you really like, the area that is close to your heart and your mindset. And may this be our wish to you for 2014 and beyond:

According to Techrepublic.com, CISSP was one of top 5 in-demand IT certifications for 2013, with salary ranging from $65,000 to $111,000. Another source states CISSP the second most paid IT certification this year, with average salary being $103,299. In case you haven’t heard much about the CISSP, let’s shed some light on it. Who knows, it may be your next step towards a rewarding career in the information security.

(ISC)² is a not-for-profit  organization that focuses on educating and certifying information security professionals throughout their careers, and its certifications are considered to be the gold standard of information security. To put it short, they’ve got the history and the experience to back their reputation of information security knowledge leaders.

CISSP is a professional level certification. To quality for it, you possess at least five years of direct full-time security work experience in two or more of the ten (ISC)² information security domains (CBK). For those holding either a four-year college degree, a Master’s degree in Information Security, or for possessing one of a number of other certifications from other organizations, one year of professional experience can be waived.

You’ll have to pass a 6-hour written exam at a Pearson Vue training center. So succeed, candidates need to reach a minimum scaled score of 700 points out of 1000 possible points. With the total of 250 multiple choice questions, the exam includes 25 experimental questions that aren’t graded.

ISC’s CISSP exam covers the following domains:

• Access control
• Telecommunications and network security
• Information security governance and risk management
• Software development security
• Cryptography
• Security architecture and design
• Operations security
• Business continuity and disaster recovery planning
• Legal, regulations, investigations and compliance
• Physical (environmental) security

Full exam outline (over 40 page PDF) is available for free from the ISC website.

Are you interested? Take a look at the ISC website, and we’ll go into more detail about this 6 hour written exam next week.

This is no secret that Cisco has significantly revamped its certification program, especially CCENT and CCNA, earlier this year. Originally announced in late March, the changes and new CCNA tracks were fully implemented this fall.

So, these are the Cisco certification levels we’re looking at now:

Entry Certifications

• CCENT
• CCT (CCT Data Center; CCT Routing & Switching; CCT TelePresence)

Associate Certifications

• CCNA Routing and Switching
• CCDA
• CCNA Data Center
• CCNA Security
• CCNA Service Provider
• CCNA Service Provider Operations
• CCNA Video
• CCNA Voice
• CCNA Wireless

Professional Certifications

• CCDP
• CCNP
• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service Provider
• CCNP Service Provider Operations
• CCNP Voice
• CCNP Wireless

Expert Certifications

• CCDE
• CCIE Collaboration
• CCIE Data Center
• CCIE Routing & Switching
• CCIE Security
• CCIE Service Provider
• CCIE Service Provider Operations
• CCIE Voice (Retiring February 13, 2014)
• CCIE Wireless

Architect Certification –  CCAr

What has changed in 2013?

If you are collecting information about CCENT and CCNA from message boards and brain dumps, be sure you’re looking at the updated 2013 data. This is important as CCENT and CNAA appear to have been changed the most.

What we hear may be sad news to many out there: CCENT (ICND1; exam 100-101, which can also be part of your CCNA R&S) has gotten harder – significantly. Subjects added, especially the labs, go more in depth and cover a lot more aspects (including lots of IPv6 stuff) compared to the old CCNA. CCENT Certification hasn’t been a joke before and it has gotten much further from being one now! This certification is also now a prerequisite for most CCNA certifications (except CCNA R&S, CCNA Data Center and CCNA Service Provider).

The Associate level programs, according to Cisco, have been redesigned to better fit the industry needs and the roles networking professionals need to fill. Yes, it means even more practical hands on stuff. To achieve advanced technology certification in an accelerated manner, you now need to pass only two required exams.

As upper certification levels haven’t been affected by the changes to such a degree (we’ll go over them in separate articles), another change to the Cisco certification structure would be the new recertification timeframes.

Renewal and Recertification Timeframes

If you decide to settle on your already achieved certification and do not intend to go up another level any time soon, keep in mind that Cisco Entry, Associate and Professional level certifications last for 3 years. When this time is up, you will have to renew it. Meanwhile, all CCIE and Specialist certifications last for 2 years. And in you’ve made it all the way up the Cisco scale and are now Cisco Certified Architect (no words are enough to express the respect you deserve for that!), your awe-inspiring certification will need to be renewed after 5 years.

A gentle reminder that if you do not register and pass your Cisco recertification exam before your certification expires, you will have to repeat the entire certification process. Now, you do don’t want to challenge yourself this much, do you?

And for those of you planning to recertify, here’s your Recertification Roadmap:

Specialist Recertification Roadmap

Collaboration  

• Cisco Unified Presence Specialist
• Cisco Unity Design Specialist
• Cisco Unity Support Specialist

Data Center      

• Cisco Data Center Application Services Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Application Services Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist

Operating System Software     

• Cisco IOS XR Specialist

Security              

• Cisco ASA Specialist
• Cisco Firewall Security Specialist
• Cisco IOS Security Specialist
• Cisco IPS Specialist
• Cisco Network Admission Control Specialist
• Cisco VPN Security Specialist

Video  

• Cisco Video Network Specialist
• Cisco Rich Media Communications Specialist
• Cisco TelePresence Solutions Specialist

Retired Certifications

This year, Cisco has retired 6 certifications:

• CCIE Storage Networking
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Support Specialist
• Cisco TelePresence Installations Specialist

All of these retired certifications have relevant replacement available, so you can easily find a new destination for your Cisco journey.

Which Cisco certification do you have your eyes on now? Feel free to tell us in the comments. And – although the road can get bumpy sometimes, remember to keep your eyes on the prize.