10 hottest it certifications all the time

Ever wonder how much that certification is worth? While it's hard to put a dollar sign on certifications, CompTIA offers some insight in the results from a recent survey.

• 65 percent of employers use IT certifications to differentiate between equally qualified candidates
• 72 percent of employers use IT certifications as a requirement for certain job roles
• 60 percent of organizations often use IT certifications to confirm a candidate's subject matter knowledge or expertise
• 66 percent of employers consider IT certifications to be very valuable -- a dramatic increase from the 30 percent in 2011

Numbers like these make it hard to discount the validity of certifications. That said, all certifications are not equal, which is why twice a year we look at which certifications are poised for growth over the next six to 12 months. And with 2015 upon us, we turn to Foote Partners and its recently released "IT Skills Demand and Pay Trends Report" to find out which certifications will carry the most weight throughout 2015 in terms of pay and demand.

1.Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer for Virtualization

2.CompTIA Security+

3.GIAC Certified Windows Security Administrator

4.Certified Computer Examiner

5.AWS Certified SysOps Administrator-Associate (Cloud)

6.EC-Council Certified Security Analyst

7.Mongo DB Certified DBA

8.Microsoft Certified Solution Developer: Applications Lifecycle Management

9.Cisco Certified Design Associate

10.Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT