Which Certification Leads to the Highest Salaries

One of the single most common questions is about which certification will lead to the highest paying jobs. And while some training companies will use this data to try to sell various courses, understanding what is behind the data will result in completely different outcomes. In fact, of the numerous criteria for choosing a career or certification path, the least important to consider is the average salary.

First of all, the statistics do show that those with one certification have higher salaries than their counterparts who are not certified. Similarly, those with two or three certifications also have a substantially higher average salary. However, the single highest jump in average salary occurs not when getting certified, but for those who gain three years of experience, with many more substantial increases as experience increases.

Let’s look at the IT field as an example, where software development jobs have higher average salaries than network administration jobs. However, not only are network administration jobs much more in demand, the years of experience plays a more substantial role. When looking at those with 10 years of experience, for example, there is hardly any difference between average compensation of networking or programming jobs.

Even within a job profile, choosing the right certification isn’t simply based on the highest average salary. Let’s look at networking certifications as an example, where those with the CCNP certification have much higher average salaries. However, far fewer companies need CCNP’s, dedicated to managing networks between their offices, as compared to companies that need people to manage their local area networks. Furthermore, those companies that need CCNP’s certainly would not give these jobs to someone without numerous years of experience, regardless of a candidate being certified or not. The best approach for someone interested in a networking career is to start with a highly demanded job profile, like the MCSE, gain a few years of experience, and then move on to vertical fields or technologies.

With experience being the single most important factor affecting average compensation, the real question becomes which job profile is the most exciting that also matches education, capabilities and experience. The best approach is to build on education and experience to show potential employers depth and commitment. Changing careers in pursuit of a higher average salary won’t work because, again, experience is the most important factor. The exception to this would be if someone had extreme difficulty with their field of study or first job.