In this article, we briefly discuss the benefits of IT certifications and list of 15 highest paying IT certifications in 2023. As you go through the list you would come across certifications from various disciplines in IT. If you have a list of this sort, it becomes quite easy to choose the right certification and start preparing for the exam.
IT professionals have to be dynamic towards the fast-paced technological changes to reach the top tier. Earning industry-standard certifications that provide them the proper skills and knowledge becomes absolutely important. Getting certified in any of the best certifications is a great start towards successful career development and growth in any IT discipline for that matter. Continue to read further to know how certifications can dramatically add value to your career.
Why IT Certifications Are So Important?
Today’s digital world is shaped by cutting-edge technological innovations and research. However, recently the pandemic worldwide had a profound impact, on the whole, many unexpected advancements emerged and allowed people to take significant decisions about themselves – their lifestyle and career. Certifications have become quite important in the IT sector because of their enormous structure and to stay in line with the growing demand for technical skills. The demand for IT professionals is growing rapidly and opportunities are much more challenging. Many companies are seeking professionals with high-level skills and experience to expand their businesses and grow them for lucrative purposes.
IT certifications are designed by many IT industry providers, certification agencies, online platforms, and sometimes from universities in collaboration with such agencies. The goal here is to educate, train validate and provide attestation to professionals for their skills. Most importantly, IT certifications give the credibility to use the skills to deal with real-time problems and provide simple to sophisticated solutions.
If you were to earn an IT certification then you would have greater exposure, experiences, and education that the certification offers. Visibility in the market with certifications is a bonus to your profile. As a professional, if you can showcase the certifications and demonstrate the skills, potential employers will have their interest in you. Validation of your skills is no longer a hectic task, because with IT certifications regardless of what you do, your ability is proven from the certification earned. Displaying IT certifications is an easy way to sometimes impress your supervisors and prospective employers. IT certifications can be thought of as a university degree or more valuable themselves under circumstances.
Without a doubt, you can grow in your current job with proper certification and skills earned from it. You can anticipate higher compensation and exciting opportunities once you have a certification that fits and adds value to your role. Increased salary is also a very important factor to any working professional. Sometimes, the opportunities slip away due to a lack of certain new technical skills or abilities. The information that the certifications provide keeps you up-to-date with the trending technology and learning them constantly becomes fulfilling at the end of the certification exam. Exploring and giving time to earn certifications gives you the interest to invest in your complete development.
How Can IT Certifications Increase Competence?
Now that we have emphasized the overview of IT certifications it is time to focus on the other aspects of them. Obtaining a college certification or university degree allows you to accumulate more knowledge, skills, and education in one way or the other. Similarly, IT certifications narrow you’re your focus towards one technical domain and enhances your quality of knowledge, skills, and education. There are thousands of IT certifications available in the world. With new technologies rolling out constantly, adapting to them is somewhat tricky. Even if you have not been a lifelong learner for a while adapting to learn new technologies through certifications is the best approach.
In the IT sector, tech companies are investing their resources in the research and development of cutting-edge solutions. Multiple surveys conducted over the last few years have identified that there are many promising career opportunities in the IT sector in areas such as data science, machine learning, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. These are just a few among the many specializations that have high-paying certifications. However, due to the high competition in the market, it becomes important for companies to validate professionals based on their expertise, certifications, and knowledge in technologies.
If your goal is to get into a massive tech company and draw an exceptional salary then learning, developing, and honing your existing knowledge is mandatory. Enrolling for certification exams gives you all these attributes when you start preparing and then pass the exam. Surveys also identified that more than 60% of individuals receive either a promotion or a hike in salary as soon as they get a highly valued in-demand IT certification.
List Of Top Paying IT Jobs With Average Salary
There are hundreds of thousands of jobs or designations in the IT sector. The roles can be related to administrative, developmental or architectural, or supportive, etc. Experience, expertise, and exposure are the factor that distinguishes these roles along with the compensation and benefits. The following is a list of some of the highest paying IT jobs with average salaries from a Robert Half blog post. Note that the compensations and benefits may differ based on the geography and sources that track. Use this list as a reference to get an idea of how much each IT job pays on average.
- Big data engineer: $166,500.
- DevOps Engineer: $120,000
- Information systems security manager: $149,000
- Mobile applications developer: $135,750
- Applications architect: $144,500
- Data architect: $145,500
- Database manager: $137,500
- Data security analyst: $134,000
- Data scientist: $129,000
- Network/cloud architect: $146,000
- Network/cloud engineer: $115,250
- Senior web developer: $124,750
- Site reliability engineer: $123,250
- Systems engineer: $107,000
- Software engineer: $123,250
As you can see from the list, security and cloud roles get higher average salaries.
List Of 15 Highest Paying IT Certifications In 2023
Each IT certification is unique in one way or the other, for instance, not all cloud certifications cover every cloud solution or big data certifications cover different big data solutions. There are many certification agencies, committees, universities, and private tech companies such as Google, VMware, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and many others. Each certification has its syllabus and target audience who can gain immensely upon earning these certifications. The following is a list of the 15 highest paying IT certification in 2023:
1. Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect
The Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect is a professional-level certificate from Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The certification exam was available from 2017 and has been one of the top-paying certifications. This certification allows professionals to design, develop, and manage robust, secure, scalable, highly available, and dynamic solutions to drive business objectives on GCP. With an average salary of USD 140,000 to 175,000 the Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect is the highest paying certification.
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification validates your expertise and provides the industry-standard credential. This certification is an associate-level certificate classified by AWS in terms of the skills and industry-level expertise it provides.
Ensure that you have a minimum of one year of experience using the AWS cloud platform for providing and implementing AWS solutions. If you already fulfill requirements, this will be a good certification in the AWS certification path. The average salary of an AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) is USD 114,000 to 149,000.
3. Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
One of the highest paying certifications in the emerging field of cybersecurity is a Certified Information Security Manager certification by ISACA. This certification validates the skills necessary to manage, design, and assess the overall information security of a business. Earning this certification gives visibility and credibility in the fields related to information security, management, and so on. On average the professionals with CISM certification earn USD 132,000 to 149,000.
4. Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)
Yet another IT certification provided by ISACA and widely recognized for analyzing the information security and risk frameworks. In today’s digital world, technology is rapidly growing and somehow increasing the risk factors for every organization. This certification provides an opportunity to become an expert risk analyst who can identify, predict and evaluate the risks and threats of IT in businesses. The average salary is around USD 146,000.
5. Project Management Professional (PMP)
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is an industry-recognized popular certification for project managers with relevant experience in a project management role. IT professionals with at least a bachelor’s degree should have a completed more than 35 hours of PMP-related training and 4,500 hours of project management experience. Those who don’t have a bachelor’s degree must have 7,500 hours of project management experience. The PMP certification helps to entrust the project manager with projects that can be delivered to customers through their expertise. On average PMP certified professionals earn USD 144,000.
6. Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP)
Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) is granted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)². This IT certification provides cybersecurity expertise. Having basic knowledge in the field of risk management and network security with at least 5 years of experience in the CISSP domain is a plus. On average the salary can be Average USD 141,000.
7. Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
With the IT processes development practicing Agile widely the demand for Scrum Masters has skyrocketed lately. With this entry-level certification, you can showcase your knowledge of Agile Scrum and its practices. Also, with the experience and knowledge, you could lead the Scrum teams, train the teams in this framework, and motivate them to perform well. To maintain credibility, you must earn Scrum Education Units and renew this certification once every two years. Certified ScrumMasters earn an average of $135,000.
8. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
The AWS Certified Solution Architect (Professional) is one of the most challenging and highly valued certifications across cloud platforms. The AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification exam is a professional-level certification exam. AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud solutions and products. With this certification, you earn the credibility to incorporate technical skills into business needs using AWS products and services. If you already have completed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect associate then this becomes much easier to focus on the cloud architect role. The average salary is about USD 135,000.
9. Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
The Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions is an advanced-level certification. This certification is earned by completing AZ-305 exams (earlier named as “AZ-303 and AZ-304″). Undoubtedly a challenging and top highest-paying certification in the cloud. It is estimated that the average salary for a Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert is around USD 135,000.
10. Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
A popular certification issued by ISACA is an industry-standard for evaluating the knowledge and expertise in identifying and defining IT vulnerabilities. The professionals who are interested in IT auditors, security professionals, and consultant roles then this certification is highly beneficial. The average salary is around USD 132,000.
11. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner – Foundational
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is a foundational certification aimed to provide a complete picture of the AWS ecosystem. This is one of the popular cloud certifications that has been taken up by a majority of IT professionals moving into the cloud. An average salary of USD 113,000 – 131,000 is earned by an individual with this certification.
12. VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP6-DCV)
This certification from Vmware is an industry-recognized certification that validates your knowledge on how to administer and troubleshoot vSphere V6 infrastructures, using best practices to provide a scalable, robust, and reliable virtualization platform. VCP6-DCV is the most popular VMWare certification with more than 100,000 IT professionals certified globally. The average salary is about USD 130,000.
13. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation
Average Salary: $129,402
ITIL 4 is the latest version of this certification and one of the most popular IT certifications. You can learn IT activities such as IT service management and IT asset management that focuses on aligning IT services with business needs using a set of detailed practices. The ITIL Foundation certification is provided by AXELOS. On average professionals with this certification earn USD 129,000.
14. Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ – 900)
A fundamental level certification that has provided enormous opportunities for professionals getting into the Azure platform. This certification covers the essentials and basics of the Azure environment and solutions that are available. It is one of the top-paying fundamental cloud certifications with an average salary of USD 126,000.
15. Citrix Certified Associate – Networking (CCA-N)
The Citrix Certified Associate – Networking certification is issued by the company Citrix. Professionals can learn and get knowledge of Citrix networks, administration, and systems administration.
Suitable for professionals with relevant knowledge in basic networking concepts like OSI model, servers, routing, and switching protocols. The average salary is about USD 125,000.
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