Knoxville's IT Professionals

This post is for those who are deciding what Certifications to get. I have recently done some research on the most popular Certification test taken at our Testing Facility. You may not know, or maybe you do, but we are the only Pearson VUE testing site in the Knoxville area; we also administer test through Prometric, 1 of 2 testing centers. The research I conducted includes how many test we have administered since January 2007, and a break down of which exams or certification test were taken. I have ranked them by volume of tests taken and the numbers are as follows:

Exam__________Total
CompTIA A+____________________250
CCNA_________________________ 80
CompTIA Network+_______________59
MS 70-270 _____________________57
MS 70-291_____________________ 40
MS 70-290_____________________ 38
MS 70-272_____________________ 25
MS 70-292_____________________ 21
CCENT________________________20
Security+ ______________________18

I am a little surprised at the number or lack there of Certified IT Professionals we have here in our quickly evolving and demanding market. Cisco has plans to add 1.7 million new CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) by the end of 2010.

I look at the information I gathered during my research and can conclude one thing; we do not have enough Certified IT Professionals with certain skills. Knoxville, TN has a MSA population of 704,431 and according to Manta.com, the leading authority on company profiles, we have 20,306 companies. Of those 20k + companies 524 are in the Technology & Communications category with 85 of those being specifically IT Companies.

Someone has to manage and maintain all of those networks, fix and upgrade all of those computers, and secure all of the company’s employee and client information. Network security is becoming more and more of an in demand skill. The government is tightening restrictions on the access to the publics’ private personal information and nowhere is it more evident than in the Healthcare Industry with HIPAA and the Financial Market with Sarbanes Oxley, I will not go into it here but you can do some research if you are not familiar with either.

There is ample opportunity for those with the skills to break into the IT market with an entry level position. Also for an existing IT Professional to position themselves for advancement, which means more money, with a little commitment to obtain a much respected Certification.