The five most lucrative certifications for IT leaders

Jason Hiner: For the second straight year, TechRepublic and Global Knowledge have partnered on a comprehensive IT salary and skills survey. Our 2009 survey showed some surprisingly strong increases in compensation for IT professionals, but also showed the effects of the global recession that's now gripping the business world.

I'm Jason Hiner, and today on Sanity Savers for IT executives, I will share some of the key findings from our 2009 salary survey, including the five most lucrative IT management certifications.

We had over 14,000 U.S. IT professionals that participated in this year's survey, nearly double the 7,200 we had last year. These IT pros answered questions about their overall job satisfaction, base salary, benefits, bonuses, certifications, industry, and geographic location.

This year's survey was conducted from October 20 to November 11, 2008, so it does take into account some of the effects of the current recession, which of course turned into a full-blown crisis last September.

Ultimately, there are two pieces are very good news in this year's report. For IT leaders, the most positive development is that 78% of IT workers reported that they were Satisfied, Very Satisfied, or Extremely Satisfied with their jobs. For IT professionals, the best news is that you reported that your average base salary has increased by 10% to $81,600, compared to $73,900 in our 2008 report.

While the average base salary increased last year, the numbers aren't completely rosy. The number of participants who reported receiving raises or bonuses actually decreased. 70% of participants in this year's survey reported receiving a raise, compared to 80% in last year's report. Meanwhile, 46% of participants reported receiving a bonus, down from 49% last year.

Although a lower percentage of participants reported receiving a raise or bonus, the average amount of each was actually higher. In our 2009 report, the average raise was 6 percent compared with 4% in our 2008 report. The average bonus in the 2009 report was 8,575 dollars compared to 3,937 dollars in the 2008 report.

So why the discrepancy? I think there are two possible reasons. First, the larger average bonus is likely due in part to the fact that we had a much larger pool of respondents this year and pulled in more CIOs and department heads, who skewed the numbers a bit.

The other thing that could be going on is that as companies scale back their IT staff, they may be providing raises and incentives to their most valuable IT workers in order to keep them around, knowing that they will likely be working more hours and having to stretch their resources even further in 2009.

Now, let's take a look at what the report said about the average salaries for specific job roles. Here are the IT leadership jobs that commanded the highest salaries:

• CIO = $134,000
• IT Director = $100,000
• IT Consultant = $96,000
• General Project Manager = $93,000
• IT Project Manager = $90,000
• IT Manager = $88,000
• IT Supervisor = $77,000

As you look at this list and compare your salary to the average, you need to keep three things in mind: industry, company size, and geography. The industry you work in has a major impact on salary. Take a look at Figure 11 in our report to see the average IT salary in various industries.

Company size is also important. For example, project managers average higher salaries than IT managers. That's because it's usually only large organizations that can afford full-time project managers. Meanwhile, IT managers are typically generalists who work in small and medium businesses.

And one of the most important determiners of salary is always going to be geography. Remember that the coasts -- and particularly New York and San Francisco -- skew the numbers. So if you're in the South or the Midwest and your salary is much lower than the average, don't overreact. You may actually have a higher standard of living and more disposable income than someone making 20 thousand dollars more who's living on the East Coast.

And, finally, for the money shot: The most lucrative certifications for IT leaders. These are important because one of the best things you can do during an economic downturn is to invest in your own skills, training, and marketability.

So here are the top five management-level certifications with the highest average salaries:

1. ITIL Service Manager = $103,900
2. ITIL Practitioner = $103,700
3. CISSP = $103,500
4. Project Management Professional = $103,100
5. ITIL Foundation = $98,900

You probably noticed a common theme: ITIL certification is hot right now. That's because ITIL -- the IT Infrastructure Library -- is a methodology that can help tackle two big issues: IT-business alignment and compliance.

CISSP -- Certified Information Systems Security Professional -- might seem like a strange fit for this list but it's there because some IT leaders are getting this certification to demonstrate their broad understanding of enterprise security. This can be useful for IT leaders to show that they are capable of effective risk assessment and risk management   which is all today's IT security is.

So, there they are. The most lucrative jobs in IT leadership and the most lucrative certifications that can help you advance your career. One thing that came through clearly once again in this year's survey is that IT professionals believe training and certification can positively affect their salaries. Likewise, hiring managers believe that certifications affect the salaries of potential employees.

We've covered just a few highlights from our 2009 IT Skills and Salary Report. For a breakdown of average salaries by region, a full list of salary by job title, a full list of salary by certification, more information on bonuses and benefits, and other factors that affect salary, you can download the full report as a PDF from salary2009.techrepublic.com.

I'm Jason Hiner and this has been an episode of Sanity Savers for IT Executives. For more, go to sanity.techrepublic.com. And if you have feedback or your own sanity savings tips, e-mail them to us at sanity@techrepublic.com. For those of you on Twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/jasonhiner. Thanks for watching. See you next time.