Does Your Certification Have Career-Value?
I know this is an apples/oranges comparison, but I thought I'd do it anyway to highlight some interesting data from the BorntoLearn bloggers that was posted a few weeks ago. Check out this link, which charts people they polled around the world on their partnership with Microsoft, Microsoft certifiability (not sure that's a word/appropriately used in this context), and job roles.
What I find interesting is that 58 percent claim to be Microsoft-cerified. Yes, that means 42 percent don't have a basic MCP title. It's quite a bit lower than our MCPmag.com readership, which is at just a tick under 70 percent. That data comes from our own 2011 MCPmag.com Salary Survey, so bear in mind that that data only comes from U.S.-based readers. As well, most of our readership have come to us because they were certified at one time or another or were seeking certification information (certification, in other words, is a priority to them).
With that, I'd like to share a little bit of data on the MCPmag.com readers that we didn't provide in our own salary survey piece online.
When asked why respondents pursued their Microsoft certification, only 20 percent cited it had to do with salary. Rather, most respondents said they attained their title mainly due to personal or career-related reasons (respondents were able to choose more than one reason):
| Why did you pursue your most recent Microsoft certification? |
|
Reason |
by percent |
|
Personal goal
|
71 |
|
To distinguish my skills from others
|
49 |
|
To get a better job
|
32 |
|
Promotion/raise from current employer
|
20 |
|
To obtain employment
|
17 |
|
Required for job
|
15 |
|
For project I’m working on |
6 |
|
Recommended by friend/boss/co-worker |
8 |
|
Required to attain Microsoft Partner status |
9 |
|
To access priority support |
3 |
|
Peer pressure |
3 |
|
Other |
7 | | |
While certification seems to be something personal, it does seem to carry weight with employers, at least that's how employees see it. Here are the results of two questions we asked in regards to certification's bearing on employability:
|
Did certification improve or enhance your ability to find or keep employment or lead to a job promotion in the last 12 months? (Numbers show percentage.) |
|
Yes, it is the primary factor |
7 |
|
Yes, it is one of several factors |
32 |
|
No |
48 |
|
Not sure |
13 | | |
|
Do you believe certification will improve or enhance your ability to find or keep employment or lead to a job promotion in the next 12 months? (Numbers show percentage.) |
|
Yes, it is the primary factor |
6 |
|
Yes, it is one of several factors |
43 |
|
No |
32 |
|
Not sure |
17 | | |
I'm working on a hiring survey, in which I'll be asking hiring managers this same question. I'm sure we won't be too surprised with the results here for some reason.
There's lots data like this in our survey (we ask a lot of questions!). Let me know if this kind of data interests you and I'll continue to look through the results (and if you have a specific question, I'll see if our results can provide the answers you seek).
For now, be on the lookout for the next MCPmag.com salary survey later on this year.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/14/2011 at 11:59 AM