For those who came into the IT industry during the mid to late 1990s, these last few years have been eye opening. Let's face it...if you could spell MCSE in 1997, you could easily land a job earning $70k or more per year. This amazing earning power was an anomaly that burst with the dotcom bubble. Historically, jobs that paid significantly more than average (engineering, medicine, law, etc.) required a great deal of study and knowledge in the chosen field. When it got to the point that just about anyone with a heartbeat could pass certain certification tests by rote memorization of braindumps, two things happened: 1) Certified people became a commodity and supply exceeded demand. As anyone who took even an intro economics course can tell you, excess supply leads to falling prices. In this case, the price (salary) required to obtain the commodity (certified persons) took a nose dive. 2) Companies realized that certifications were no predictor of ability or performance. Rather, they are at best a baseline indicator that the person has been exposed to certain ideas and concepts.
Today, we're dealing with a slow economy and an excess of qualified IT labor. Those who get jobs in today's market are those with the better qualifications (experience, education, and certifications), those who are willing to work for a salary greatly reduced from what they could expect to earn even two years ago, and those who are lucky. The only places touting the ability of new CCNAs to earn $60k per year are those training centers that base their very existence on luring people to very expensive classes with the illusory promise of graduating with a high-paying job in hand. The bottom line is that there's no substitution for education and hard work when trying to get a job in today's IT world. Are certifications still important? Yes. If for no other reason that many companies use them as a basic screening tool to decide whose resume gets read and whose gets passed. Are certifications enough to guarantee a good job? Absolutely not. Many people don't like to hear this, but the time is approaching when IT workers are going to be held to the same standards as other career fields. You're going to need an education along with the certification if you're going to get your foot in the door in the future. Finally, you want to know how to earn a six figure salary in IT. The way you do this is to love your work. You're dealing with a highly dynamic field where today's hot skill can be tomorrow's ticket to the unemployment line (ask the COBOL programmers). This means that the learning NEVER stops. If you're not studying the latest technology every day, you're going to find yourself useless very quickly. The work can be frustrating and the hours can be very long. Have you ever noticed how the IT guys are often the first in and the last to leave? And when the CEO's car is at the golf course on Saturday, the IT guy's car is at the office working on an upgrade? If you don't love technology, and the challenges that come with it, you're going to have a very hard time staying in the field long enough to reach the six figure mark. On the other hand, if you love technology, and you love your work, you'll find that over the years, your skills and knowledge will increase, and the salary will come. At 04:39 AM 2/2/2003 +0000, you wrote: >Hello, I'm recently taking a ccna course in new york. What I want to know is >that I've read in salary reports which state that ccna salary's start at 60k >but in message boards such as this one, I'm finding out that a ccna >certification alone will get you nothing. Can someone please elaborate on >this and if possible tell me which combination of it certifications are >necessary for the 6- figure salary range. Thank you. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=62332&t=5925 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
