We get it. Your life is busy. You work hard. You have other obligations. Maybe it’s family. Maybe it’s continuing education. Maybe it’s community service. Maybe it’s plugging into an audiobook or podcast and running for a couple of hours at the end of the day just to clear your head. Maybe you waited until the end of the year to use up your stockpile of vacation days and the plane to Thailand and Phang Na Bay leaves tomorrow.

If you’re reading these words, however, then there’s an excellent chance that you have at least one (1) current IT certification. And if you have at least one (1) current IT certification, then we really need your help. If you haven’t already taken the 2024 Salary Survey, then now is the time to do so. And if you have already taken it — thanks for that, by the way — then we need you to get all of your IT-certified friends to do the same thing.

We started early this year, so there’s still time: You have until midnight (Mountain time) on Friday, Dec. 1 to take the survey.

We’ve already had a strong response. Quite a few certified professionals have already done what we’re asking you to do. We want our data to be as representative as possible, however, of the worldwide IT certification population. So we need participation from as many people as we can beg, borrow, arm-twist, or cajole into answering a few questions. So take our survey, please!

Or maybe enjoy the following Top 10 list of Reasons to Take the Salary Survey and then go take it. Without further ado:

10) Everyone else is doing it. Yeah, we know what your mom said about “everyone else” and the things that they do. Would you take shorter showers, replace your lawn with bark or rocks and native plants, and switch from sprinklers to in-ground drip irrigation — all to conserve water — just because everyone else is doing it? Wait — what now? See what you did, Mom? Sometimes everyone does something because it’s the right thing to do.

9) Get a free one-year subscription to the digital edition of Certification Magazine. Because who doesn’t like free stuff? And who doesn’t like certification? Just take the survey all the way to the end, and a free one-year digital subscription is yours for the taking.

8) It’s what James Bond would do. Stay with us, here: James Bond has a license to kill. And that license is sort of like a certification: He had to train really hard to be admitted to that level, and he has to periodically certify his fitness to continue to be so licensed. (See what we did there?) So Mr. Bond digs certification already. Sure, he might be more likely to get around to it if we had Q embed the Salary Survey in a gadget that can only be activated once the survey has been completed. But you can always count on Bond — James Bond — to do the right thing.

7) Taking the survey is safer than attempting to declaw a hungry lion with a cuticle trimmer. It's also safer than smoking a pack of cigarettes every day. And it's definitely safer than driving a government-issue pickup truck across an active lava flow (even if you're just a passenger in the back seat). So, you know, safety first! Take the survey and you won't be in any immediate danger.

6) Do it for Harry, England, and Saint George! Once more unto the survey, dear friends, once more! Or, um, well look, nobody has to die to get this thing done. If you want to imitate the action of the tiger, though, and disguise fair nature with with hard-favour’d rage while you click things, then sure. Stiffen the sinews! Summon up the blood! Then get in there and take that survey!

5) You can get early access to the final six episodes of Yellowstone on Paramount+ if you complete the survey. The first eight episodes of the big Season 5 swan song sendoff to Taylor Sheridan's epic — nay, Shakespearean — saga of ranching and politics aired from Nov. 22 of last year through Jan. 1. And then ... well, there were already creative tensions stalling production. And things got worse after the subsequent strikes by Hollywood writers (since resolved) and actors (ongoing) shot everything all to hell. (Sort of like what happens to people who mess with John Dutton and his offspring.) The fate of the entire Yellowstone ranching operation is up in the air, and Beth might kill Jamie ... if Jamie doesn't kill her first.  The rest of the world could end up waiting until mid-2024 to find out how everything ends, but not you. We might be lying through our teeth*, of course. But what if we’re not? There’s only one way to find out …

4) Do you like $50 Amazon gift cards? Because we have some of those, and it’s a ton of fun giving them out. Complete the survey and you could wind up with enough Amazon moola to get a deep tissue massage gun for that persistent back pain.

3) There are two little words that will open any door. Please take the survey. See? It’s almost like you can’t not do it, because we asked nicely. Also, thank you for taking the survey. (Bam! You’re totally locked into this thing now.)

2) [REASON TO TAKE SURVEY GOES HERE] Note to self: Don’t forget to come back and finish this one.

1) The world could end tomorrow. On the bright side, none of us would ever have to stand in a TSA screening line at the airport, or plunge a backed-up toilet, ever again. Ask yourself, though, do you really want to go to your grave with the knowledge that you could have taken the Salary Survey and didn’t do it? You gotta live life while you can!

‍

* We are definitely lying through our teeth. Sorry, Yellowstone fans. We've been left high and dry right along with you.

‍