Take the Salary Survey

Every certification training course we sell here at TestOut Continuing Education is on some level a BOGO. That's "buy one, get one," for those of you not totally in the know about discount shopping parlance. It's not a perfect comparison, but it's close. That's because when you train with TestOut, you have the option to get not one, but two certifications at the end of each course. One is a professional credential from CompTIA, Microsoft, or Cisco.

The other is a professional credential from TestOut. We've been in the IT certification game for going on three decades, so it made sense, about 6 or 7 years ago, to break new ground by launching our own certification program. Each TestOut Pro certification is quite closely aligned with a more popular and more established industry certification. Our PC Pro is similar to CompTIA's A+, our Routing Pro and Switching Pro are analogous to Cisco's CCNA, and so forth.

Our courses cover all the topics and concepts you need to pass the non-TestOut exam. Our Pro certification exams, however, because they are largely performance-based, demand a little something extra that our training also addresses. Not only that, but when you purchase training from TestOut, you also receive an exam voucher for the associated Pro certification. That's right: Your first attempt at our Pro certification exam is free.

When, for example, you purchase TestOut CE's Security+ Training, you'll learn everything you need to know to pass both CompTIA's Security+ certification exam and TestOut's Security Pro exam. Yet while you have to cough up the Security+ exam fee, your first Security Pro exam is covered. Now, we've walked through all of this partly to explain one of the awesome benefits of TestOut courseware, but also to shine a light on the Pro certification exams.

We have a strong belief in the bright future of Pro Certifications. Because the Pro exams haven't been around for very long, however, we're still gradually building up their status and word-of-mouth brand awareness. Which is why we have a favor to ask of anyone who has a TestOut Pro credential. We need you — ideally all of you, wherever you may be — to take the Salary Survey just launched by the good folks at Certification Magazine.

The Salary Survey collects and reports data about certifications and, among other things, their associated earning potential. The more TestOut Pro certification holders who participate, the richer that data will be. When enough of you participate, the result can even be cool stuff like this. That kind of exposure helps build the Pro Certification brand, and making that brand strong is a win for TestOut, but also a win for everyone who has one or more of our certifications.

So if you like TestOut products and you have one of our Pro certifications, then please participate. The survey is fairly concise (it takes about 15 minutes to complete) and if you make it all the way to the end, then you can claim a free one-year subscription to the digital edition of Certification Magazine. And you will have both our sincere appreciation and the wam and fuzzy feeling of having voluntarily contributed to the greater good. Everybody wins!