More on DBA Salary Levels
Readers are always intersted in salaries... and Certification Magazine just published their annual survey.
The December 2006 issue of Certification Magazine has some interesting statistics on the average salary earned for the various types of certification levels.
CertMag’s 2006 Salary Survey compiled data provided by over 35,000 IT professionals in 197 countries. The good news? Average salaries are up.
But what about the all-important (at least to dbazine readers) DBA salaries? In terms of the various specializations tracked by the survey, DBA tied for sixth place with system design with an average salary of $83,790. Database administration saw an average increase of nearly $4,000 over last year, while system design decreased by a little more than $2,000.
So, DBAs are not the top of the heap, but certified DBAs are doing well. How well? I guess it depends on what DBMS you are using and what certification level you have achieved. Here are the average salaries for the different DBA certifications tracked by the survey:
IBM Certified Database Administrator - DB2: $93,790
Microsoft MCDBA: $74,780
Oracle DBA OCA: $75,370
Oracle DBA OCM: $100,680
Oracle DBA OCP: $84,910
So what can we make of these numbers? It would seem that certified DB2 and Oracle DBAs can out-earn Microsoft DBAs. I don't think that surprises any of us. And for those of you not familiar with the Oracle certification levels, here is a quick rundown. There are three levels of Oracle DBA certification you can achieve:
OCA, or Oracle Certified Associate, is the entry level certification for Oracle database administration. It basically tests for the ability to act as a junior team member working with database administrators or application developers.
OCP, or Oracle Certified Professional, is a step up from OCA, testing for more mature Oracle DBA skills and abilities. This is the level at which most Oracle DBAs should be performing.
OCM, or Oracle Certified Master, is the highest level of Oracle DBA certification you can achieve. It requires a two-day laboratory practicum to demonstrate Oracle database administration expertise. Most certification only requires passing a multiple choice test.
And what topped the list of certifications for this survey? Information security specialists. IT security professionals reported an average salary of $93,500 a year - which is an increase over 2005, but only barely (by $710).
The complete list of average salaries by certification can be viewed here.
Friday, December 01, 2006
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