What Are You Worth?

Sales cycles are longer, and the wins are few and far between. At the same time, my guess is your company has experienced some downsizing,whether it is reduced travel budgets, changes in benefits or even layoffs. All the while, we anxiously await earnings announcements, consumer confidence numbers, the Nasdaq results to gauge when this recession will end.

In the meantime, I've got some good news for you. Despite the difficult times, the average solution provider employee received a raise of 5.2 percent last year. This is three times the rate of inflation, according to our annual Salary Survey, which starts on page 47 of this issue. What's more, if you placed your bets correctly on skills, you earned much more than some of your counterparts. Similar to last year's results, if you are a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert, you make an average of $26,200 more than a non-certified technician. Other specialties also garnered significantly more in terms of compensation. The Sun Developer For Java and IBM WebSphere certifications, for instance, allowed solution providers to increase their salaries by about 30 percent.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about how maintaining certifications is becoming an administrative nightmare. After the column published, I received a number of letters complaining about the increase in the number of certifications.

Help is in sight. Both distributors and vendors are looking at ways to help you with this problem. One solution being bandied about: having distributors pick up the management task for you. Another option is creating solutions certifications in which you gain the expertise in a particular speciality such as security, integration or infrastructure.

Until these changes are made, I have one nugget of advice for you: Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The administration issues will be worked out. Invest the time and the dollars in new skills. It is imperative that you stay on top of the newest technologies. As this year's Salary Survey numbers show, if you take the time to invest in new skills, it will pay for itself in the future.

What do you think? Will these changes help? I can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].