Salary Survey Extra is a series of periodic dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our most recent Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Industry reporting recently disclosed that Amazon Web Services (AWS) controls roughly a third (33 percent) of the global market for cloud infrastructure service providers, more than Microsoft (18 percent), Google (8 percent) and IBM (6 percent) combined. There is clearly a market for cloud professionals who have verifiable AWS skills.

An excellent place to start for cloud technologists who want to increase their AWS fluency is the AWS certification program. And the trunk of the AWS certification tree is the foundation-level AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner credential, No. 21 on our most recent Salary Survey 75 list.

Here's what the salary picture looks like for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $125,920
Median Annual Salary: $122,500
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 4.8 percent
Very Satisfied: 9.5 percent
Satisfied: 52.4 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 23.8 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 9.5 percent

All Non-U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $77,560
Median Annual Salary: $60,000
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: [No responses]
Very Satisfied: 30 percent
Satisfied: 60.1 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 9.9 percent
Not At All Satisfied: [No responses]

Roughly two-thirds of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who participated in the Salary Survey are U.S. residents (67.7 percent), but we also heard from credential holders in 8 other countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

Tech circles tend to be dominated by men, and male professionals account for 90.3 percent of AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who participated in the survey. Most respondents, regardless of gender, are clustered around middle age, with roughly 66 percent of those surveyed either between the ages of 35 and 44 (29 percent) or between the ages of 45 and 54 (35.5 percent). The rest are either between the ages of 25 and 34 (12.9 percent of respondents) or between the ages of 55 and 64 (22.6 percent).

More than 90 percent of AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who responded to the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of formal education completed by most AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders is either a bachelor's degree (48.4 percent), master's degree (32.2 percent), or associate's degree (9.7 percent).  The outliers are the 6.5 percent of respondents who topped out at some level of post-high school technical training, and the 3.2 percent who exited the realm of formal education after completing high school.

All of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who responded to the survey — 100 percent — are employed full-time. Among those who have full-time jobs, most are at work either for the standard 40 hours per week (32.3 percent of respondents) or put in between 41 and 50 hours per week (54.8 percent). The remaining 12.9 percent are carrying a heavy load, working more than 50 hours per week.

A lot of IT jobs don't require all (or even most) work to be done in a company office, and some of that freedom is evident here. Although 67 percent of those surveyed work from home for either fewer than 10 hours per week (50 percent) or between 10 and 20 hours per week (16.7 percent), an expansive 33 percent are spending more than half their work week at home. That includes the 13.3 percent of respondents who work from home between 21 and 30 hours per week, the 6.7 percent at home between 31-39 hours per week, and the 13.3 percent who do work at home either for the entire 40-hour work week (3.3 percent) or for more than 40 hours per week (10 percent).

In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders we heard from, 38.3 percent of those surveyed, are employed at the senior specialist level. The rest, in descending order, are either directors (17.7 percent of respondents), specialists (14.7 percent), executives (8.8 percent), managers (also 8.8 percent), rank-and-file employees (also 8.8 percent), or senior managers (2.9 percent).

A little less than half (44.1 percent) of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders who responded to the survey are IT veterans, having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for more than a decade. The rest have been plying their certified skills for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (5.9 percent of those surveyed), between 3 and 5 years (20.6 percent), between 6 and 8 years (17.6 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (11.8 percent).

Finally, here's the view of AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner holders on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:

At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification:
Several times a day: 50 percent
Several times a week: 23.5 percent
Several times a month: 11.8 percent
Occasionally: 14.7 percent
Rarely: [No responses]

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 26.5 percent
Agree: 44.1 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 17.6 percent
Disagree: 11.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 17.6 percent
Agree: 58.9 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 17.6 percent
Disagree: 5.9 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 17.6 percent
Agree: 53 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 20.6 percent
Disagree: 8.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

PAST AWS CERTIFIED CLOUD PRACTITIONER DEEP FOCUS FEATURES

2019