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 These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

In 2020, you can buy just about anything online, whether it's household needs like groceries or bed linens, or a new set of steel-belted radials for the family SUV. Magento, the open-source e-commerce platform, is likely a silent partner in many of those transactions — just last year, Magento processed $155 billion worth of online transactions.

Many, if not most, of the programming professionals who are making those wheels spin probably have a certification backing up their skills. This year's Deep Focus series has already covered the Magento 2 Certified Associate Developer credential, and today we're looking at Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer (No. 25 on our most recent Salary Survey 75 list).

Here's what the salary picture looks like for Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $121,500
Median Annual Salary: $117,500
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 30 percent
Very Satisfied: 40 percent
Satisfied: 20 percent
Not Very Satisfied: [No responses]
Not At All Satisfied: 10 percent

All Non-U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $42,500
Median Annual Salary: $30,830
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 8.1 percent
Very Satisfied: 11.3 percent
Satisfied: 48.4 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 29 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 3.2 percent

A majority of the certified professionals who respond to the Salary Survey each year are from the United States, but this is one of the fairly few certifications where our pool of respondents does not reflect that skew: just 14.1 percent of Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders who responded to the survey are from the United States, while slightly more than 28 percent are from India. The rest are scattered across 20 different countries around the globe: Belarus, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Developers across most IT specializations tend to be men, a trend that definitely carries through here, with woman accounting for just 5.6 percent of Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders who responded to the Salary Survey. In addition to being mostly male, the survey population is also surprisingly youthful, with 72 percent of respondents younger than 35, either between the ages of 19 and 24 (8.5 percent) or between the ages of 25 and 34 (63.4 percent). Most of the "older" credential holders — 23.9 percent of those surveyed — are between the ages of 35 and 44, leaving just the 4.2 percent who are between the ages of 45 and 54.

An impressive 81 percent of Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders who participated in the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of formal education completed by most of those surveyed is either a bachelor's degree (52.1 percent of respondents), master's degree (22.5 percent), associate's degree (2.9 percent) professional degree (2.8 percent), or doctorate (1.4 percent). The outliers are the 7 percent of respondents who topped out at some level of post-high school technical training and the 11.3 percent who exited the realm of formal education after completing high school.

Every Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holder who participated in the survey has a job, with 98.6 percent of those surveyed employed full-time, and the remaining 1.4 percent holding part-time positions. Among those who have full-time jobs, most are at work either for the standard 40 hours per week (45.9 percent of respondents) or put in between 41 and 50 hours per week (33.3 percent). The rest are scattered around the time clock, with 1.4 percent of respondents working more than 50 hours per week, 15.2 percent putting in between 31 and 39 hours per week, 2.8 percent on the clock for between 20 and 30 hours per week, and an improbable 1.4 percent needing fewer than 20 hours per week to meet the requirements of their "full-time" positions.

Developers often have the freedom to choose their work environment, but Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders are surprisingly office-bound, with 82 percent of respondents working at home either fewer than 10 hours per week (68.4 percent) or between 10 and 20 hours per week (13.6 percent). A not-really-trendsetting 18 percent of respondents have more freedom, working from home either between 21 and 30 hours per week (4.5 percent), between 31 and 39 hours per week (1.5 percent), 40 hours per week (6 percent), or more than 40 hours per week (also 6 percent).

In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders we heard from, 47.2 percent of those surveyed, are employed at the senior specialist level. The rest, in descending order, are either specialists (22.2 percent of respondents), rank-and-file employees (15.3 percent), managers (5.6 percent), executives (4.1 percent), directors (2.8 percent), or senior managers (also 2.8 percent).

Most of the Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer holders who responded to the survey are relative IT newcomers, having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for either between 3 and 5 years (40 percent of respondents) or between 6 and 8 years (31.4 percent). The rest have been plying their certified skills for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (19.1 percent), between 9 and 10 years (3.8 percent), or for more than a decade (5.7 percent).

Finally, here's the view of Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer 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: 49.1 percent
Several times a week: 29.2 percent
Several times a month: 14.1 percent
Occasionally: 3.8 percent
Rarely: 3.8 percent

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 21.7 percent
Agree: 54.7 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 19.8 percent
Disagree: 3.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: [No responses]

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 24.5 percent
Agree: 39.7 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 23.6 percent
Disagree: 11.3 percent
Strongly Disagree: 0.9 percent

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 17 percent
Agree: 36.8 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 36.8 percent
Disagree: 8.5 percent
Strongly Disagree: 0.9 percent