Top 5 Certifications Of 2016

As a busy professional, have you been wondering what it’s worth to get a certification? Would getting certified on a particular skill really help you get ahead in your career?

Here’s a comparison between average income levels of Certified professionals across the top 5 certifications to look for in 2016. This is an income snapshot covering certified individuals across industry sectors within the US, and would help you understand whether you really need to get a certification at this point in your career.

Key takeaway from the graph - Information Security is Booming (capital ‘B’ is intentional), Project Management is a stable career, and Quality Control and Service Management still have value. This basically should be a primary input to selecting which/ whether to get a particular certification. Any certification you intend to go for would come in at a cost - both in $ terms and in terms of opportunity cost. Rule of thumb - if you’re looking at getting a certification purely from a Return on Investment (RoI) angle, you should not pick any certification that has an average income level that’s similar to what you’re getting now. Call me a miser, but I’d hate to take time out to get trained and attend an exam for something that probably won’t get me more money. But if you’re in the game for knowledge, and you want to showcase your skills with an industry-standard certification, disregard this article and be on your merry way! Also applicable if it is a hygiene requirement in your work environment to have a particular set of skills and a specific certification to boot. An RoI focus isn’t necessarily bad, especially in these troubled economic times. I mean, it sometimes even helps you make the right career choice. For example, if you’re a regular service manager at a bank, it makes sense to go for an ITIL certification. However it would make even more sense to shift your career track altogether, and get into Information Security with a CISM or CISSP certification.

But if you are a regular programmer or developer here is a list of the highest paying programming languages in 2016. Hope you’ve liked the information here. Do drop me a line with your thoughts below.