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 These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Optimization is the holy grail of enterprise-level business operations. Companies have experts whose entire job role is to make everything about the business and its operations function more smoothly. The Open Group Architecture Framework, or TOGAF, is a methodology for creating comprehensive and effective enterprise architecture to improve business efficiency.

If that sounds intriguing, then you may be a good candidate for TOGAF certification, which comes in a variety of flavors. TOGAF 9 Certified (No. 6 on our most recent Salary Survey 75 list) is the higher of the two levels of certification that directly address mastery of the TOGAF Standard.

Here's what the salary picture looks like for TOGAF 9 Certified holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
‍Average Annual Salary: $144,310
Median Annual Salary: $107,250
‍How satisfied are you with your current salary?
‍Completely Satisfied: 9.5 percent
Very Satisfied: [No responses]
Satisfied: 80 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 10.5 percent
Not At All Satisfied: [No responses]

‍All Non-U.S. Respondents
‍Average Annual Salary: $104,780
Median Annual Salary: $135,000
‍How satisfied are you with your current salary?
‍Completely Satisfied: 14.3 percent
Very Satisfied: 19 percent
Satisfied: 38.1 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 23.8 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 4.8 percent

The largest single body of TOGAF 9 Certified holders to participate in the survey is made up of residents of the United States (32.2 percent). The rest of the TOGAF 9 Certified holders we heard from are spread across 14 other countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, India, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The IT realm is typically dominated by male professionals, and only a handful of the TOGAF 9 Certified holders we heard from — 10 percent of those surveyed — are women. (A shade more than 3 percent chose not to identify their gender, and the rest are men.) The age of credential holders, on the other hand, is somewhat surprising, with 56.7 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 35 and 44. The rest are either between the ages of 45 and 54 (20 percent of respondents) between the ages of 55 and 64 (16.7 percent), or between the ages of 65 and 74 (6.6 percent).

A striking 90 percent of the TOGAF 9 Certified holders who responded to the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of education completed by most TOGAF 9 Certified holders is either a bachelor's degree (26.7 percent of respondents) or a master's degree (63.3 percent). The remaining 10 percent of TOGAF 9 Certified holders either completed some level of post-high school technical training (3.3 percent of those surveyed) or departed the realm of formal education after completing high school (6.7 percent).

Employment among TOGAF 9 Certified holders is rock solid, with 96.9 percent of credential holders employed full-time and 3.1 percent holding part-time jobs. For most respondents, full-time employment means either a standard 40-hour work week (22.6 percent of respondents) or a regular schedule of between 41 and 50 hours per week (32.2 percent). Out of the remaining 45 percent of those surveyed, 32.2 percent work between 31 and 39 hours per week and 13 percent put in more than 50 hours per week.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reshuffled workplaces worldwide in 2020. Two years later, things may be drifting back toward the pre-pandemic norm: Only about 37 percent of the TOGAF 9 Certified holders we heard from are spending their entire work schedule at home, with 9.7 percent putting in 40 hours per week from home, and 25.8 percent working beneath the same roof that's overhead when they sleep at night more than 40 hours per week. The rest are sliding back into their cubicles (or corner offices), working from home either between 31 and 39 hours per week (12.9 percent of respondents), between 21 and 30 hours per week (9.7 percent), between 10 and 20 hours per week (19.4 percent), or for fewer than 10 hours per week (22.5 percent).

In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of TOGAF 9 Certified holders we heard from are employed at the senior manager level (28.1 percent). The rest, in descending order, are either senior specialists (25 percent of respondents), executives (18.5 percent), directors (12.5 percent), specialists (9.7 percent), managers (3.1 percent), or rank-and-file employees (also 3.1 percent).

An impressive 62.5 percent of TOGAF 9 Certified 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 between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (3.1 percent of respondents), between 3 and 5 years (9.4 percent), between 6 and 8 years (9.4 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (15.6 percent).

Finally, here's the view of TOGAF 9 Certified 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: 40.8 percent
Several times a week: 40.5 percent
Several times a month: 12.5 percent
Occasionally: 6.2 percent
Rarely: [No responses]

‍Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
‍Strongly agree: 34.4 percent
Agree: 40.6 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 15.6 percent
Disagree: 6.3 percent
Strongly Disagree: 3.1 percent

‍Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
‍Strongly agree: 21.9 percent
Agree: 46.9 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 18.8 percent
Disagree: 6.2 percent
Strongly Disagree: 6.2 percent

‍Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
‍Strongly agree: 15.8 percent
Agree: 56.3 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 15.5 percent
Disagree: 3 percent
Strongly Disagree: 9.4 percent

PAST TOGAF 9 CERTIFIED DEEP FOCUS FEATURES

2021

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