What Are the Hottest IT Certifications?

With the JobsEQ RTI data set,[1] one can easily stay up-to-date with which certifications are being requested most by employers in their job ads. The below graphic shows the top four IT certifications for the thirty days ending September 15, 2017; the counts indicate how often these certifications were mentioned by U.S. employers in online ads for computer occupations.[2] 

The top credential for this period is Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). This certification is especially important for the information security analysts occupation.[3] About 18% of the ads for this occupation included a reference to the CISSP certification.

Next in line is the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential. This certification was mentioned in 17% of the ads for information technology project managers. This credential is also used outside IT—for example, in the fields of engineering, finance, and health care.

The third-most mentioned IT certification for the thirty days ending September 15 is Information Technology Infrastructure Library Certification (ITIL). Mentions for this credential were dispersed across several different IT occupations, the most common being computer user support specialists and the next-most prevalent being network and computer systems administrators.

Coming in fourth place, the final top certification in our survey, is Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). This certification was mentioned most often in ads for network and computer systems administrators—about 5% of the ads for this occupation referenced the CCNA certification.

[1] The RTI (Real-Time Intelligence) data set is solely constructed and maintained by Chmura Economics & Analytics. The data set consists of online job postings, updated daily and categorized to the 8-digit SOC level. Job counts represent ads for the United States that have been deduplicated and were active at any point during the reference period. RTI is available through the JobsEQ online platform.

[2] "Computer occupations" are defined here as SOC 15-1000.

[3] All occupation titles referenced here are based upon the 8-digit SOC codes.