Certifications can pay off, at least in some areas. There’s a piece that talks about pay rising for some tech professionals when they have some credentials. Networking, architecture, and project management are mentioned in the report, as are database and data management.

I haven’t seen the source report, and I’m not sure which certifications are getting higher pay rises, but I’d guess that newer data technologies, things related to cloud databases, and even anything related to AI is likely to get you a raise.

Note, that I would guess that if you want a raise, you likely need to change employers, as those companies who have skills gaps in their teams are likely to overpay in the short term. There are certainly pockets of change in many organizations that are looking to move faster and adopt new technologies and might need training for existing staff as well as hiring new people to handle the workload.

There are two interesting quotes in the article related to AI. The first is that companies are learning that the quality of their data impacts their use of AI, and I suspect they might want more people managing data, checking quality, cataloging it, and more to ensure they can use it to train a GenAI LLM.

The other quote was that “…technologies like AI are forcing organizations to move with lightning speed to fill specific gaps in their job architectures — and too often, they are stumbling.” I read this as AI gives people code they don’t understand, so there is a need to hire someone experienced enough to review AI code. That’s good for experienced people as it creates opportunities, but I wonder if these are short term or this will be a lasting trend.

This is a tough time in technology, in May 2025 as many companies are being cautious about hiring tech professionals. This might be the time to get a few certifications as companies start to put more weight on them along with experience. The cert doesn’t prove you can do the job, but with experience, it might give hiring managers a little more confidence you are a good choice.

Steve Jones

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