There’s a general feeling of dread in the industry these days—and many people saying they’re happy just to have a job—but there is some bright news on the salary front for IT security practitioners. The latest quarterly IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index from Foote Partners LLC found that the value of certain security certifications has skyrocketed in the past year.
And we don’t use skyrocketed lightly. Those who achieved the GIAC Security Expert certification (GSE) notched an average salary increase of 36.4 percent. CISM’s were getting an additional 27.3 percent and certified hacking forensics investigators (CHFI) another 14.3 percent. Other bumps came to GIAC Certified Intrusion Analysts (11), GIAC Systems and Network Auditor (11), Cisco Certified Security Professional (9) and CISSP (8).
The bad news is that overall demand for certifications by IT managers has declined precipitously. Foote’s research shows eight straight quarters of decreasing pay for the 165 certifications the company surveys. In addition to security, networking, systems, and database certifications are trending upwards, along with architecture and project management skills.
