Let me give you a little ground work here to help you understand where I want to go with this post.
Job Titles/roles:
Professional titles are used to signify a person’s professional role or to designate membership in a professional society. The IT industry is well known for its wide range of job titles and aggrandizement of roles, which can make it hard to pin down exactly what people do.
Examples:
System Administrator
IT Administrator
IT Coordinator
System Engineer
Professional Certification:
Once a person achieves professional certification in a given area of study, they have undergone examination by some form of governing body or professional association that is willing to assure the candidates competence in the given field of knowledge. In most cases, a certificate is issued for a set duration of time, at which the candidate must recertify with the same governing body.
Examples:
CISCO Certified Network Associate
Microsoft Certified Profession
Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert
Employers in small city and/or towns do their best to pay their employees what is fair. Employers recognizes two and four year degrees from a College or other institutions. They also recognize Professional certification for well-known certifications.
Examples:
MBA
CPA
PFA
Most of the hour wages/salaries are forged through Job Titles/Roles.
Because I live in Iowa here are some Examples:
A Project Analyst average salary in Iowa is $74,000. A CPA average salary is $80,000. A System Administrator salary is $69,000. An IT administrator is $65,000.
I also understand that the people that hold these IT certifications need to demonstrate these skills before being compensated accordingly. I am only bring this to everyone’s attention so Iowa companies can be aware of what other companies in Iowa are compensating their employees with certifications.
So here is a short list of IT Certifications that are well known to IT professional in Iowa. This is not a complete list.
| Description | Average Salary in Iowa |
| VMware Certified Professional | $87,000 |
| Cisco Certified Network Associate | $76,000 |
| Microsoft Certified IT Professional | $82,000 |
| Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate 2012 | $87,000 |
| Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert 2012 | $84,000 |
| A+ | $59,000 |
| Security+ | $72,000 |
| VMware Certified Associate | $39,000 |
| Microsoft Certified Professional | $54,000 |
Thank you for reading.
You get paid what the market will bear. Certifications mean nothing without a practical exercise. They mean that you can memorize a set of questions and answers. If there is a hands on exercise portion maybe they have some weight to them. Seen plenty of people that can memorize a set of test questions but need help in the field right away.
Those averages that you show are skewed by Des Moines Iowa City and the other metropolitan areas in Iowa. If you don’t live in those areas you must adjust for regional pay.
You are correct. I have one issue. Average is average. So if the Des Moines and Iowa City people are making 100K, the people employed in the rural areas are making 30K. That just means the average salaries for Iowa are very close. If you take ten percent off the average for a town in Iowa of five thousand people then that should be a very close estimate.
I hold multiple certifications. I use at least two or three of these certifications daily. There are other people out there that do the same. These people and I love rural Iowa and do not want to leave. We just want to be compensated for the knowledge and time we put into the jobs we hold.
There are others, I know of a couple personally, that hold certification that are not worth any of the salaries listed.
So yes I understand both sides. That is why I also posted this comment, “I also understand that the people that hold these IT certifications need to demonstrate these skills before being compensated accordingly. I am only bring this to everyone’s attention so Iowa companies can be aware of what other companies in Iowa are compensating their employees with certifications.”