Exploring the World of Rrofessional Certification

Exploring the World of Professional Certifications and Associations LaVern Adams, ITIL, AGILE

Women of Color STEM Conference

Objectives

• Explore the various benefits of joining a professional organization

• Discover various types of certifications

• Examine 15 top-paying IT certifications and their associated pay

Table Of Contents

Explore the various benefits of joining a professional organization

Choosing a professional organization

Strategies to maximize professional association membership

Establishing a common definition for professional certifications

Discover various types of certifications

Examine 15 top-paying IT certifications and their associated pay

Benefits to joining a professional organization

• Networking Opportunities - Expand your professional network. Make new contacts and deepen existing relationships. Our contacts become stale and limiting if we have a narrow circle of workers.

• Education – Update your knowledge or acquire new skills through seminars, workshops, break- out sessions at conferences; discounted publications

• Resources – “members only” websites offers access to databases, message boards, notifications of upcoming events and special activities; job listings

• Awareness - Increase others awareness of your company; Discover what other companies are doing

• Support System – Formal coaching, mentoring Gets you to think outside of the box (many companies and their workers have tunnel vision)

• Distinguish yourself, as a professional, to employers, clients and the industry; Enhance your professional credibility by meeting the challenges of an outside agency review ;Validate your knowledge and the capability to professionally apply the principles of your chosen specialty; Verify that you are an individual dedicated to continuously improving your technical skills and professional development

Table Of Contents








• Obtain recommendations from colleagues, friends and associates

• Check the Gale Encyclopedia of Associations – available at most libraries

• Review publications and check for upcoming meetings, presentations, seminars, conferences

• Consider national organizations - have greater resources

• Browse membership directory – informally contact some members

• Make sure you can afford the fees

Table Of Contents








• 1. Use and read the information gleaned from your professional newsletters. Find out more about:

– hot topics and issues to be current

– know the key players (people and companies)

– vendors that might help you.

• 2. Have a strategy for attending the association meeting. If you are shy, try to make this a time to go to a meeting with a fellow co-worker.

• 3. Pre-determine a goal for the meeting. "I am going to meet

– 2-4 new contacts." Collect their cards. Write brief notes about them on the back to jog your memory. The notes could be both personal and professional in nature.

– For a Professional Contact, acquire the following information:

– Job duties

– Career goals and objectives

– Previous and current employers

– Skill set

– Views and discussion of professional issues


• 3. Pre-determine a goal for the meeting. "I am going to meet

– For a Personal Contact, acquire the following information: – Where you live

– Boards/volunteer work

– Family/children

– Where you went to school

– Hobbies, special interests

• 4. Get involved in the association on a deeper level. Why not be part of a committee? Most associations have a version of: – Program

– Membership

– Reception/Hosting

– Large Events/Conference

– Newsletter

– PR/Marketing/Outreach

• 5. Donate your time if money is limited and you want to attend a conference. Help in the office with a mailing.


• 6. Request membership if you are laid off as part of an outplacement or transition package.

• 7. Keep membership in a variety of related groups (in order to have a mix of ideas, personalities, and companies).

• 8. Write an article if you feel you have some expertise. This catapults you into the role of expert.

• 9. Follow up with your contacts and keep in touch to renew you.

Table Of Contents







What is a professional certification

• Definition

– A designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task

• Attributes

– Most are created, sponsored, or affiliated with professional associations, trade organizations, or IT vendors interested in raising standards

– In general, must be renewed periodically, or may be valid for specific period of time

– As part of renewal process, common for individual to show evidence of continued learning (PDUs, CEUs, etc.)

Table Of Contents







Categories of Certifications

• Three General Types:

– Corporate: for internal use; limited portability

– Product-Specific: prevalent in the information technology industry; referenced to a product across all applications, for example personnel are certified on a version of software or hardware; portable across locations (corporations that use that product) but not across products

– Profession-Wide: portable to all places a certified professional might work; often

found in medical profession by particular specialties; Other IT related types include: Project management, Security

Types of Certifications Certification

3 Com Computer Associates International

Institute for Interconnecting & Packaging Electronic Circuits

Oracle

Adobe Enterasys Systems Institutional Society of Certified Electronics Technicians

Planet 3 Wireless

Adtran Expert Rating International Webmasters Association

Project Management Institute

Alcatel-Lucent Hewlett Packard Learning Tree International Red Hat Software

American Society for Quality IEEE Computer Society Linux Professional Institute SAP Partner Academy

Apple IBM Corporation Microsoft Sun Microsystems

BMC Software Information Systems Audit and Control Association

Net QOS Sybase

Cisco Systems Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals

Nortel Networks Symantec

Comp TIA Institute for Configuration Management

Novell UXLabs

Considerations for Choosing a Certification

• Why do you want to be certified?

• Are you trying to reach another goal? For example, do you want to get certified because you want to increase/enhance the service to your customers

• Are you new to the field/subject and need to get oriented?

• Do you want to become better at your daily duties?

• Do you want to increase your practice in your company to deliver a better product to your customers

• Is your company or client making certification mandatory?

• Do you want to receive the pay incentive given once achieving certification status?

Table Of Contents







Fifteen Top Paying IT Certifications (by Global Knowledge 4/2011)

15. MCDBA Microsoft Certified Database Administrator -

($84,683)

14. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker ($86,053)

13. APS HP Blade System Solutions ($86,554)

12. Project+ CompTIA Project+ ($87,057)

11. VCP VMware Certified Professional

($87,151)


10. AIS HP ProLiant ML/DL/SL Servers

($87,332)

9. AIS HP Storage Works ($91,158)

8. CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Voice (CCNA Voice)

($92,837)

7. ITIL v2 Foundation & ITIL v3 Foundation

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

($96,128 & $93,250)

6. CCNP Cisco Certified Network Professional

($97,296)


5. CCDA Cisco Certified Design Associate

($97,995)

4. CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional

($100,735)

3. PMP Project Management Professional

($103,570)

2. ITIL Expert ITIL Expert Certification ($107,092)

1. CCDP Cisco Certified Design Professional

($107,878)

Any Questions

Q&A

LaVern Adams, ITIL, AGILE

Associate, Booz | Allen | Hamilton

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Program Management Institute - http://www.pmi.org

ITIL Service Management - http://www.itil-officialsite.com/

Cisco Certifications - http://www.cisco.com

Global Knowledge - www.globalknowledge.com

Inform IT - www.informit.com

Open Group - www.opengroup.org

Gateway to Associations -

http://www.asaecenter.org/Community/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm

Association of Information Technology Professionals - http://www.aitp.org

Additional Resources

http://www.pmi.org/

http://www.pmi.org/

http://www.pmi.org/

http://www.itil-officialsite.com/




http://www.cisco.com/

http://www.cisco.com/

http://www.globalknowledge.com/

http://www.informit.com/

http://www.opengroup.org/




http://www.aitp.org/

http://www.aitp.org/