As the global economy moves out of the Great Recession, technology and high-tech jobs will play a critical role in the recovery. But which skills and certifications can give you an edge on getting the job or promotion you want?

For the third year in a row, Global Knowledge and TechRepublic partnered to create and distribute a comprehensive IT salary survey. From October 19 to November 15, 2009, over 19,529 IT professionals from around the globe (over 17,800 were from the U.S. and Canada) answered questions about their overall job satisfaction, base salary, benefits, bonuses, certifications and more. In March, we released the result of this survey in our 2010 IT Skills and Salary Report.

As part of the report, we asked respondents to indicate which of more than 145 industry certifications they possessed. We then compared those numbers with each individual’s salary. Here’s a list of the top five technical certifications by average salary:

1. $99,928 - CISSP (Cert. Info. Sys. Security Professional)
2. $93,953 - CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate)
3. $91,271 - VMware Certified Professional
4. $89,864 - CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional)
5. $86,454 - MCSE (MS Certified Systems Engineer)

For a complete breakdown of the top 20 IT certifications by salary and a host of other IT skills and salary information, download the complete 2010 IT Skills and Salary Report.

On Thursday, Jason Hiner and I appeared as guests on the TechRepublic Webcast, “Building a Business-ready Mobile Infrastructure.” During the live, one-hour show, Jason and I offered insights on critical considerations when creating, managing, and support a mobile network, such as:

• Picking the right mobile devices (laptops, netbooks, smartphones, VoIP, unified communications and even peripherals)
• Securing, supporting and managing mobile networks
• The affect of virtualization and cloud computing

If you’re developing a mobile strategy for your organization, it’s definitely worth a look. You can view the recorded
Webcast through TechRepublic’s download directory or by clicking the link above.

Note: This Webcast was sponsored by Dell. You must be a registered TechRepublic member to view the Webcast and the registration information you provide will be shared with the sponsor.