Philip Davis, over at the GeoTech Center Blog writes:
Many prospective GIS students and professionals ask me "What is the economic value of industry certification?". Now we have some hard employment data analysis from a reliable website to quantify an answer. Check out the answer to this question, here .
PayScale, of which I've not heard, says this about the company on its about page:
PayScale is a market leader in global online compensation data. With the world's largest database of individual employee compensation profiles, PayScale provides an immediate and precise snapshot of the job market. Our patent-pending real-time profiling system indexes custom employee attributes (such as industry-specific certifications) and specific job titles for every industry.
The company does not detail how it gets the data, but its pretty clear: to see much of the company's data you basically fill out an anonymous salaray survey.
So, then, what's the value of the GISP salary ranges noted, which were, by the way, updated July 8, 2012? I'd argue it's very limited because:
(1) The sample is quite small - N=309 per the page above (Kudos for PayScale for reporting that!)
(2) I can't easily compare data for people who do not have GISP certification. There's a page for GIS skills and salaries related to certain titles (N=1394) but I suspect the GISP numbers are included in them!
The real question, I think, is: how much more do GISPs make than non-GISP in the same position? Has anyone measured that?
by Adena Schutzberg on 07/17 at 04:01 AM |
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