IT Certs - Not Entirely Accurate Report
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The thing that is tricky about those reports is that they list what people who have those certs make, not what people make because of those certs. They state a fact and let people draw other conclusions.
Same way that colleges make degrees sound good.
You could say that the average kindergarten graduate earns $30K a year and that is true. They leave out that the average kindergarten graduate is 42 years old and also graduated from high school and has some college and has 20+ years of work experience.
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@scottalanmiller said:
The thing that is tricky about those reports is that they list what people who have those certs make, not what people make because of those certs. They state a fact and let people draw other conclusions.
Same way that colleges make degrees sound good.
You could say that the average kindergarten graduate earns $30K a year and that is true. They leave out that the average kindergarten graduate is 42 years old and also graduated from high school and has some college and has 20+ years of work experience.
That report is still really high for Utah which is below average as far as IT salaries go. Maybe it would be accurate for Silicon Valley or NYC
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Those numbers are super low for NYC and the Bay Area.
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Entry level people make more than that?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Those numbers are super low for NYC and the Bay Area.
Super low for here too. Normally around mid to high 30k around here for helpdesk jobs. unless it's for a school, then the sys admin don't even make that.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Those numbers are super low for NYC and the Bay Area.
Super low for here too. Normally around mid to high 30k around here for helpdesk jobs. unless it's for a school, then the sys admin don't even make that.
I am talking about the WGU report not the Indeed.com report
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@IRJ said:
Entry level people make more than that?
Can, yes. But those aren't entry level titles. Those are mid career titles.
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The WGY report is not entry level or starting. They are career averages for people holding those certs. So for network+ for example that would include my salary now. Very misleading.
This is how IT people mislead themselves in these studies. It doesn't state anything wrong. Everyone is just reading into it things that it doesn't say or even hint at. Read it carefully, it's useless data.
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@ajstringham COMPTIA Security+
Average salary: $80,066Wow, I'm grossly underpaid then...........
I've stopped looking at these "reports" because they are not based in reality.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham COMPTIA Security+
Average salary: $80,066Wow, I'm grossly underpaid then...........
I've stopped looking at these "reports" because they are not based in reality.
You aren't average career length or average career market though. You are misreading the stat. It's just an average of people holding that cert. You are much younger than average.
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@scottalanmiller I've had that cert coming up on 6 years I think. Been working in IT in one capacity or another 10+ years now. I mean, unless 29 still means I'm too young......
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@IRJ Those look closer to what I see.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
@scottalanmiller I've had that cert coming up on 6 years I think. Been working in IT in one capacity or another 10+ years now. I mean, unless 29 still means I'm too young......
It sure does. Average time in IT is more like 22 years and average age is like 43. And that's industry average. Average of those with certs is even higher.
Step back and just try to define a certified industry average and use real numbers. You'll find that you are very young.
I'm still young and have 25 years experience and am a decade older.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
@scottalanmiller I've had that cert coming up on 6 years I think. Been working in IT in one capacity or another 10+ years now. I mean, unless 29 still means I'm too young......
It sure does. Average time in IT is more like 22 years and average age is like 43. And that's industry average. Average of those with certs is even higher.
Step back and just try to define a certified industry average and use real numbers. You'll find that you are very young.
I'm still young and have 25 years experience and am a decade older.
25 years is a bit of stretch. You haven't been in IT since you were 12. You might have started learning stuff at 12 but don't say you have 25 years of experiencing, as that's deceiving.
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@ajstringham said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
@scottalanmiller I've had that cert coming up on 6 years I think. Been working in IT in one capacity or another 10+ years now. I mean, unless 29 still means I'm too young......
It sure does. Average time in IT is more like 22 years and average age is like 43. And that's industry average. Average of those with certs is even higher.
Step back and just try to define a certified industry average and use real numbers. You'll find that you are very young.
I'm still young and have 25 years experience and am a decade older.
25 years is a bit of stretch. You haven't been in IT since you were 12. You might have started learning stuff at 12 but don't say you have 25 years of experiencing, as that's deceiving.
I'm 38. I started working as a corporate intern at 13 with Eastman Kodak. That's 25 years since I started. I started learning many years before that. I started programming in 1985.
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That internship generated my first real job offer (outside of high school food service) when I was 17. It went quite well for me.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That internship generated my first real job offer (outside of high school food service) when I was 17. It went quite well for me.
That's more like 20 years then. Internships are limited experience. That's why they're internships.
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I've only been in IT for 10 years or so.
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@ajstringham said:
@scottalanmiller said:
That internship generated my first real job offer (outside of high school food service) when I was 17. It went quite well for me.
That's more like 20 years then. Internships are limited experience. That's why they're internships.
No that's not how that works. Internships are the same as any other career stating point in IT. Completely on par and often far better than helpdesk.
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If I count volunteer experience I've been doing some IT since I was 13 or 14. But don't put that on my resume or anything most people wouldn't care I don't think. It depends on where the internship was at. I did work for some local churches, a non-profit housing authority and a small local film production company (It was a non-profit as well). I would certainly call them better than helpdesk. I learned far more setting up Apple Servers at a production company with an Xsan and fiber to the desktop (1GB fiber at the time lol). then I ever did in helpdesk.
