1. Women of Color STEM Conference
Exploring the World of Professional
Certifications and Associations
LaVern Adams, ITIL, AGILE

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Choosing a professional organization
• 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

7. 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

8. Strategies to maximize professional association membership
• 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

9. Strategies to maximize professional association membership
• 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.

10. Strategies to maximize professional association membership
• 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.

11. 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

12. 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.)

13. 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

14. 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

15. Types of Certifications
Certification
3 Com Computer Associates Institute for Interconnecting & Oracle
International Packaging Electronic Circuits
Adobe Enterasys Systems Institutional Society of Certified Planet 3 Wireless
Electronics Technicians
Adtran Expert Rating International Webmasters Project Management Institute
Association
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 Net QOS Sybase
Control Association
Cisco Systems Institute for Certification of Nortel Networks Symantec
Computing Professionals
Comp TIA Institute for Configuration Novell UXLabs
Management

16. 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?

17. 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

18. Fifteen Top Paying IT Certifications (by Global Knowledge 4/2011)
15. MCDBA Microsoft Certified Database ($84,683)
Administrator -
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 ($87,151)
Professional

19. Fifteen Top Paying IT Certifications (by Global Knowledge 4/2011)
10. AIS HP ProLiant ML/DL/SL ($87,332)
Servers
9. AIS HP Storage Works ($91,158)
8. CCNA Cisco Certified Network ($92,837)
Associate Voice (CCNA
Voice)
7. ITIL v2 Foundation & ITIL Information Technology ($96,128 & $93,250)
v3 Foundation Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
6. CCNP Cisco Certified Network ($97,296)
Professional

20. Fifteen Top Paying IT Certifications (by Global Knowledge 4/2011)
5. CCDA Cisco Certified Design ($97,995)
Associate
4. CISSP Certified Information ($100,735)
Systems Security
Professional
3. PMP Project Management ($103,570)
Professional
2. ITIL Expert ITIL Expert Certification ($107,092)
1. CCDP Cisco Certified Design ($107,878)
Professional

21. Any Questions
 Q&A
LaVern Adams, ITIL, AGILE
Associate, Booz | Allen | Hamilton
Adams_lavern@bah.com

22. Additional Resources
 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