Take a minute to tell us what makes your job great.
Give a Little, Get a Little
Take a minute to tell us what makes your job great.
- By Linda Briggs
- 05/01/2000
We spend most of our time here at MCP Magazine
working to bring you information to help you do your jobs
as IT workers and Microsoft Certified Professionals. Around
this time of year, we ask for a little information back
from you to help us serve you better.
First, our fifth annual salary survey is in the works
(it’s slated for the August issue and will appear
online beginning July 15). As we do each year, we’re
contacting a statistically selected number of MCPs in
the U.S. to ask you questions about your work, your skills,
your certifications, your location, and your pay. If you’ve
received an email asking for your participation (the survey
is online), please consider setting aside the 15 minutes
it will probably take to complete the questionnaire. Your
participation is essential in enabling us to present you
with meaningful figures on who earns what. Last year,
MCSEs reported base salaries averaging $65,100, but there
were only 139,000 MCSEs. This year, there are nearly 250,000
MCSEs worldwide—what effect will that have on pay?
In today’s hot job market, we can guess that we’ll
again see salaries climb—but how high? We need your
participation to tell us that and much more.
Another popular cover feature that we’re repeating
this year also calls for reader participation. Last May,
we published an article titled, “Great Job! Companies
That Treat MCPs Right.” To ferret out the 17 top
companies we selected for the article, we asked readers
to go to our Web site and complete a form nominating their
firms as great places to work (or for a few of you, as
abysmal pits that you couldn’t wait to escape from).
This year, based on reader feedback, we’re narrowing
the nomination to a particular business unit or branch
location within a company. Does your local management
publicly recognize your talent, treat its IT staff like
stars, encourage training and certification, supply the
right tools for the job, keep overtime under control,
and buy its technical professionals BMW roadsters? Well,
the final item is a little farfetched, but the rest aren’t.
If you like how you’re treated, here’s your
chance to tell the world—and help raise the standards
for IT professionals in general.
About the Author
Linda Briggs is the founding editor of MCP Magazine and the former senior editorial director of 101communications. In between world travels, she's a freelance technology writer based in San Diego, Calif.