A Cisco Certified Network Professional can pull in a very impressive salary. One of the things you have to take into account when you’re looking at salary figures for individuals that hold this certification is that they are qualified for a variety of jobs. To a great extent, the amount of money that an individual with a CCNP certification will hold will depend upon the actual job title they have at their workplace. Because of the broad range of qualifications these individuals have, it’s not uncommon to see people with these certifications working at the highest levels of administration within an organization and, when they are starting out, at the lowest levels.
Starting Out
For a Cisco Certified Network Professional at an entry level of employment, the salary levels are generally quite a bit higher than what one would expect without the certification. It’s reasonable to expect an average salary of about $50,000 per year in US dollars for entry-level positions in management and network engineering.
As the level of experience goes up for the individual, so does the salary. The certification is also specific and respected enough that the people who hold it can oftentimes easily work their way up within the structure of the company to a better position. At the highest levels, someone working as a Cisco Certified Network Professional and holding a title that puts them in charge of a department, such as a senior network administrator, can pull in a six-figure salary over the course of the year. The average range tops out at just under $120,000 per year. Of course, depending upon the individual’s situation and their length of time serving a particular company, the salary level may go higher than this.
Contracting
The CCNP degree, to its advantage, makes an individual qualified for just about any type of networking work. Because the job market is currently less than optimal, many of the individuals who hold this degree end up working for contractors or starting out their own businesses. An individual that holds a Cisco Certified Network Professional certification can easily demand $50 an hour on a contract in a very competitive market. In a less competitive market, it’s not uncommon for them to charge much more than that. The certification gives the people for whom they are contracting a great deal of confidence in their abilities, and justly so.
In some cases, employers may be willing to foot the cost of getting a person with a network associate certification through the requisite education to get their network professional certification. The benefit to the employer, obviously, is that they get a loyal employee with a very high level of certification that eliminates almost all of the need to call in outside contractors for all but the most complex of jobs. While the network professional certification is not the highest level of certification offered by Cisco, there is no hard and fast ceiling on the amount of money that a person who holds it can pull it over the course of a year.
