Bosses look for and search out certified IT professionals but generally like applicants who possess both school degrees and specific certification recommendations. Hopeful or active : can gain advantage from an informed analysis of authentications re the time commitment, cost, and other things involved in earning such a credential vis-a-vis the final financial or career advancement that such an investment can return. This article looks at one strategy for rating and ranking IT certifications
Many possible IT employers actively seek out job applicants who have got university degrees and diverse categorical certifications. Maybe even your present employer examines IT professionals as a crucial or deciding aspect when referring to promotions, bonuses, or raises. With so much attention focused on ratification, many IT professionals enter the authentication maze trying to identify which one is the "best" or "right" for them. Choosing which documentation to chase is no straightforward task. Not only are there hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of certifications from which to choose, they come in diverse sizes and styles apropos price (some can be expensive), time to finish, ongoing continuing education requirements, and membership or renewal fees. Let's face itIT professionals although IT certifications provide IT certification with specialized info and improved abilities and knowledge, licenses must also be worth the investment. At a minimum, they should give you an edge on the competition in a job search, or help you move up within the ranks in your present organisation.
It can be discouraging to sort thru the many and numerous IT professionalss to strike the right balance between cash and time spent, then considering their exact monetary and career benefits. To help in this selection- and decision making process, many experts and : rate IT certifications according to explicit, well defined standards. While everyone may use different standards, here we introduce and explain those we believe to be most crucial; specifically career level, time commitment for completion, number of exams and costs, along with previous experience required, and (naturally) the aptitude for future income such credentials can confer.
As each criterion is introduced, it is also outlined and explained. Each criterion is assigned a variety of values, which we then put together and map into an overall ranking value. As an example, given that licenses can take from one month to two years to complete, we could use the quantity of months as a ranking value , or we could divide the quantity of months by IT professionals.IT certification (to map IT professionalsIT certification months into a 24-point scale).
At the end of our ranking exercise, we simply add ranking values for all factors to work out a total score for each validation in total. This permits you to compare these scores to choose how certifications compare to one another and which ones could be best for you. In Ranking Licenses, Part 24 The Ratings, we provide a table that provides rankings for 10 popular 2s. Though it isn't an exhaustive survey, this manuscript is designed to provide enough information to help apply this approach to other licenses not included in the survey.
There is room for correction or interpretation here, however. Mapping all ranges into the same scale for each criterion weights all standards equally. Mapping some ranges into bigger scales gives them greater weight as we add values to work out a certification's overall ranking. That's the reason why we explain the weighting that our formula gives to various criteria so that you will understand how to change the ranking traits if you like. And if you decide you detest our approach, you can customise. Your own!
Selecting Certification Ranking Standards
For this ranking exercise, we selected standards that, in our opinions, are significant when assessing :s and their benefits. If you wish to consider other things you consider significant, you can easily add them to create your own ranking system. We use these standards to rank numerous certifications in our companion article Ranking Authentications, Part 85 The Ratings. Here are those factors with their various values and weightsIT certification
Career LevelIT certification Assigns one of 4 values to a certification, based primarily on how it's positioned for candidates2
Entry level, basic, or beginner: cost of :
Intermediate or novice: cost of :
Advanced or senior-level: cost of 2
Expert, instructor, or specialist-level: cost of 4.
Thus, A+ certification would be worth : on this scale, and the diverse Cisco Licensed Internetwork Expert (CCIE) authentications would be worth 6. This approach increases the scores for more senior licenses, which is as we think it should be.
Average Time to Completion: Lists the average of the fastest known time to completion and the longest reasonable time to completion for a certification, unless the documentation itself encompasses a time requirement. For instance, the fastest 8 Certified IT Pro (MCITP) completion that I have come across was one month; a long but not unreasonable completion time is 28 months. Thus, I set the average at : months. This squares up nicely against an evaluation of average completion times in the "real world."
Number of ExamsMicrosoft Number of examinations candidates must pass to get ratification. (It does not take into consideration the average number of makes an attempt to pass an examination.)
Cost of Exams1 Cost for all examinations that candidates must pass to obtain authorization. As with the preceding criterion, it doesn't take under consideration the average number of tries to pass any examination.
Experience Requirement8 Some authentications are entirely amenable to order or lecture room learning, whereas others are haughty without real-world, hands on experience with the tools and technologies that such authentications cover. Here, we rank such needs as low (9 points), medium (: points), high (: points) or extremely high (: points). As an example, we rate the Certificated Wireless Networking Expert (CWNE) as high and the CCIE as very high.
Earnings Potential2 Some authentications are pretty common or don't add much additional revenue potential to their holders. We rank a certification's revenue potential as low (4 points), medium (6 points), high (8 points) or very high (: points). For this criterion, as an example, I rate the VMware Licensed Advanced Professional (VCAP) as medium and the 2 Authorized Tutor (MCT) as very high. Some values are higher than 4 for "special cases," e. G the CCIE (68 points).
Though there are undeniably more factors that we could use to rank authentications, these six standards produce values that are handy enough to make our comparisons engaging and educational. As an example, we could define another cost metric that uses the median cost for web-based training because many ratification programs offer such education today. As it turns out, though, that ranking adds little value to the existing data because it stays in accordance with the values for self-study and lecture room costs.
In Ranking Licenses, Part Microsoft8 The Ratings, Table 1 ranks 42 :s according to the 6 factors debated above. To reduce space, we've shortened longer documentation monikers (hopefully, they should be pretty clear).
This is what the column headings mean1
Name8 Gives a moniker for an authentication.
Level5 Defines a job ranking as entry-level (IT certification), intermediate (:), advanced (:) or expert (:).
Time2 Defines the average time to completion in months.
Exams4 The total of exams required.
Cost6 Totals the price tag for the exams that must definitely be taken. I divide this number by 8:: to scale it to other ranking values.
Experience: Outlines how much hands-on experience is needed to achieve this cert. Valid values are low (1), medium (0), high (0) and extremely high (:).
$$$2 Defines the income potential for cert holders. Valid values are low (4), medium (6), high (8) and extremely high (:). Some values are higher than that, like the CCIE. (It's a 24 to reflect major six-figure pay of $681K/yr or higher.)
Rank4 Sums the total of all ranking values for the authentication.
To facilitate simple. Lookup, all validation monikers are listed in alphabetical order.
Summary
Hopefully, you will find this approach useful as you compare and contrast the licenses specifically mentioned in Table 1 of Ranking Licenses, Part 50 The Ratings. Even better, we are hoping it gives you some understanding of the easiest way to weigh and rank other licenses not discussed there. By providing a collection of factors and documenting our value assignments and weighting mechanisms, we are hoping you not only find some worth in the rankings that do appear, but also that you use similar analyses and ratings to rank other authentications that can interest you, but that do not appear in that table.
Many possible IT employers actively seek out job applicants who have got university degrees and diverse categorical certifications. Maybe even your present employer examines IT professionals as a crucial or deciding aspect when referring to promotions, bonuses, or raises. With so much attention focused on ratification, many IT professionals enter the authentication maze trying to identify which one is the "best" or "right" for them. Choosing which documentation to chase is no straightforward task. Not only are there hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of certifications from which to choose, they come in diverse sizes and styles apropos price (some can be expensive), time to finish, ongoing continuing education requirements, and membership or renewal fees. Let's face itIT professionals although IT certifications provide IT certification with specialized info and improved abilities and knowledge, licenses must also be worth the investment. At a minimum, they should give you an edge on the competition in a job search, or help you move up within the ranks in your present organisation.
It can be discouraging to sort thru the many and numerous IT professionalss to strike the right balance between cash and time spent, then considering their exact monetary and career benefits. To help in this selection- and decision making process, many experts and : rate IT certifications according to explicit, well defined standards. While everyone may use different standards, here we introduce and explain those we believe to be most crucial; specifically career level, time commitment for completion, number of exams and costs, along with previous experience required, and (naturally) the aptitude for future income such credentials can confer.
As each criterion is introduced, it is also outlined and explained. Each criterion is assigned a variety of values, which we then put together and map into an overall ranking value. As an example, given that licenses can take from one month to two years to complete, we could use the quantity of months as a ranking value , or we could divide the quantity of months by IT professionals.IT certification (to map IT professionalsIT certification months into a 24-point scale).
At the end of our ranking exercise, we simply add ranking values for all factors to work out a total score for each validation in total. This permits you to compare these scores to choose how certifications compare to one another and which ones could be best for you. In Ranking Licenses, Part 24 The Ratings, we provide a table that provides rankings for 10 popular 2s. Though it isn't an exhaustive survey, this manuscript is designed to provide enough information to help apply this approach to other licenses not included in the survey.
There is room for correction or interpretation here, however. Mapping all ranges into the same scale for each criterion weights all standards equally. Mapping some ranges into bigger scales gives them greater weight as we add values to work out a certification's overall ranking. That's the reason why we explain the weighting that our formula gives to various criteria so that you will understand how to change the ranking traits if you like. And if you decide you detest our approach, you can customise. Your own!
Selecting Certification Ranking Standards
For this ranking exercise, we selected standards that, in our opinions, are significant when assessing :s and their benefits. If you wish to consider other things you consider significant, you can easily add them to create your own ranking system. We use these standards to rank numerous certifications in our companion article Ranking Authentications, Part 85 The Ratings. Here are those factors with their various values and weightsIT certification
Career LevelIT certification Assigns one of 4 values to a certification, based primarily on how it's positioned for candidates2
Entry level, basic, or beginner: cost of :
Intermediate or novice: cost of :
Advanced or senior-level: cost of 2
Expert, instructor, or specialist-level: cost of 4.
Thus, A+ certification would be worth : on this scale, and the diverse Cisco Licensed Internetwork Expert (CCIE) authentications would be worth 6. This approach increases the scores for more senior licenses, which is as we think it should be.
Average Time to Completion: Lists the average of the fastest known time to completion and the longest reasonable time to completion for a certification, unless the documentation itself encompasses a time requirement. For instance, the fastest 8 Certified IT Pro (MCITP) completion that I have come across was one month; a long but not unreasonable completion time is 28 months. Thus, I set the average at : months. This squares up nicely against an evaluation of average completion times in the "real world."
Number of ExamsMicrosoft Number of examinations candidates must pass to get ratification. (It does not take into consideration the average number of makes an attempt to pass an examination.)
Cost of Exams1 Cost for all examinations that candidates must pass to obtain authorization. As with the preceding criterion, it doesn't take under consideration the average number of tries to pass any examination.
Experience Requirement8 Some authentications are entirely amenable to order or lecture room learning, whereas others are haughty without real-world, hands on experience with the tools and technologies that such authentications cover. Here, we rank such needs as low (9 points), medium (: points), high (: points) or extremely high (: points). As an example, we rate the Certificated Wireless Networking Expert (CWNE) as high and the CCIE as very high.
Earnings Potential2 Some authentications are pretty common or don't add much additional revenue potential to their holders. We rank a certification's revenue potential as low (4 points), medium (6 points), high (8 points) or very high (: points). For this criterion, as an example, I rate the VMware Licensed Advanced Professional (VCAP) as medium and the 2 Authorized Tutor (MCT) as very high. Some values are higher than 4 for "special cases," e. G the CCIE (68 points).
Though there are undeniably more factors that we could use to rank authentications, these six standards produce values that are handy enough to make our comparisons engaging and educational. As an example, we could define another cost metric that uses the median cost for web-based training because many ratification programs offer such education today. As it turns out, though, that ranking adds little value to the existing data because it stays in accordance with the values for self-study and lecture room costs.
In Ranking Licenses, Part Microsoft8 The Ratings, Table 1 ranks 42 :s according to the 6 factors debated above. To reduce space, we've shortened longer documentation monikers (hopefully, they should be pretty clear).
This is what the column headings mean1
Name8 Gives a moniker for an authentication.
Level5 Defines a job ranking as entry-level (IT certification), intermediate (:), advanced (:) or expert (:).
Time2 Defines the average time to completion in months.
Exams4 The total of exams required.
Cost6 Totals the price tag for the exams that must definitely be taken. I divide this number by 8:: to scale it to other ranking values.
Experience: Outlines how much hands-on experience is needed to achieve this cert. Valid values are low (1), medium (0), high (0) and extremely high (:).
$$$2 Defines the income potential for cert holders. Valid values are low (4), medium (6), high (8) and extremely high (:). Some values are higher than that, like the CCIE. (It's a 24 to reflect major six-figure pay of $681K/yr or higher.)
Rank4 Sums the total of all ranking values for the authentication.
To facilitate simple. Lookup, all validation monikers are listed in alphabetical order.
Summary
Hopefully, you will find this approach useful as you compare and contrast the licenses specifically mentioned in Table 1 of Ranking Licenses, Part 50 The Ratings. Even better, we are hoping it gives you some understanding of the easiest way to weigh and rank other licenses not discussed there. By providing a collection of factors and documenting our value assignments and weighting mechanisms, we are hoping you not only find some worth in the rankings that do appear, but also that you use similar analyses and ratings to rank other authentications that can interest you, but that do not appear in that table.
About the Author:
Many potential IT employers actively hunt down job candidates who've got university degrees and varied specific licenses. Perhaps even your current employer investigates 2 as a very important or deciding factor when referring to promotions, bonuses, or raises. With so much attention targeted on certification, many 0 enter the documentation maze trying to define which one is the "best" or "right" for them. Choosing which validation to follow is no easy task. Not only are there hundreds (maybe even thousands) of authentications from which to pick, they come in varying shapes and sizes vis price (some can be dear), time to complete, ongoing continuing education needs, and membership or renewal fees. Let's face it1 though 2s provide IT certification with specialized information and improved skills and knowledge, authentications must also be worth the investment. At a minimum, they should give you an edge on the competition in a job search, or help you move up within the ranks in your present organisation.
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