Some tech jobs see pay increases
Believe it or not, some development skills actually saw pay increases through the recession. Get out your programming books and hone your craft.
Skilled technologists tend to be able find jobs in economic downturns, even if they don't find their ideal positions. But getting a raise in a down economy is a tough trick to pull off. The good news is that jobs in open-source software and niche application skills actually saw pay increases, according to research from Foote Partners.
Foote Partners tracks pay for 371 certified and noncertified IT skills, and its first quarter research shows that pay for noncertified skills in Linux rose by more than 28 percent, while Apache and Sybase noncertified skills saw 25 percent increases in pay. Pay for Java and HTTP skills increased by 20 percent, while IT professionals with PHP, SAP and Unix noncertified skills experienced a more than 14 percent pay increase. Pay for various noncertified skills in virtualization also saw an increase of more than 12 percent, according to the research firm.
Certified IT skills that saw pay increases include HP/Certified Systems Engineer with a 14.3 percent increase in pay, and Sun Certified Programmer for Java Platform, which experienced an increase of 13.5 percent in pay. IT professionals with EMC Proven Professional certifications experienced a 12.5 percent increase in pay, as did IBM Certified Specialists. Systems Security Certified Practitioner pay increased in the first quarter by 12.5 percent.
As with anything related to jobs, there is an ebb and flow of needs and marketable skills. It is interesting to note that the differential between certified and noncertified is negligible--making me wonder what that statistic looks like historically.
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