Salary Survey Extra is a series of periodic dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our most recent Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.‍

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Cloud storage and cloud services are becoming the default setting for quite a lot computing technology. In that sense, we're rapidly progressing toward a point at which "cloud security" is not a distinct and separate realm from just "cybersecurity." So learning cloud security is really just learning security, a few years ahead of the curve.

A great place to get started for cybersecurity specialists hoping to stay on the leading edge of that curve is the AWS Certified Security - Specialty credential (No. 10 on our most recent Salary Survey 75 list) offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is, as they say, the 800-pound gorilla of the cloud computing market.

Here’s what the salary picture looks like for AWS Certified Security holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $139,760
Median Annual Salary: $152,500
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 9.6 percent
Very Satisfied: 19.4 percent
Satisfied: 38.7 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 32.3 percent
Not At All Satisfied: [No responses]

All Non-U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $71,940
Median Annual Salary: $55,000
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 9.6 percent
Very Satisfied: 11.5 percent
Satisfied: 42.4 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 21.1 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 15.4 percent

A bit more than a third of the AWS Certified Security holders who participated in the Salary Survey are U.S. residents (37.3 percent), but we also heard from credential holders in 25 other countries: Albania, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Djibouti, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Tech circles tend to be dominated by men, and male professionals account for 74.5 percent of the AWS Certified Security holders who participated in the survey. A surprisingly strong 23.6 percent are women, with the remaining 2 percent of credential holders split between those preferring not to disclose gender information (1 percent) and transgender males (0.9 percent). Most respondents, regardless of gender identity, are clustered around middle age either between the ages of 35 and 44 (47 percent of those surveyed) or between the ages of 45 and 54 (24.1 percent). Most of the outliers are either between the ages of 55 and 64 (4.8 percent of respondents) or between the ages of 25 and 34 (22.9 percent), with tiny sliver between the ages of 19 and 24 (1.2 percent).

More than 90 percent of AWS Certified Security holders who responded to the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of formal education completed by most AWS Certified Security holders is either a bachelor’s degree (43.3 percent of those surveyed), master’s degree (39.8 percent), doctorate (4.8 percent), associate’s degree (3.6 percent), or professional degree (1.2 percent). The outliers are the 4.9 percent of respondents who topped out at some level of post-high school technical training and the 2.4 percent who exited the realm of formal education after completing high school.

Roughly 75 percent of the AWS Certified Security holders who responded to the survey are employed full-time. The rest are either employed part-time (1.8 percent of respondents), on sabbatical (9 percent), currently in school (5.5 percent), or out of work (8.2 percent). Among those who have full-time jobs, most are at work either for the standard 40 hours per week (36.3 percent of respondents) or put in between 41 and 50 hours per week (35 percent). The remaining roughly 30 percent of those surveyed are either carrying a heavy load, working more than 50 hours per week (10 percent), or getting off easy with a standard work week of between 31 and 39 hours per week (16.3 percent), between 20 and 30 hours per week (1.2 percent), or fewer than 20 hours per week (1.2 percent).

In the trailing aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many AWS Certified Security holders who probably had a desk at an office before 2020 are spending most or all of their work schedule at home. A notable 42 percent of respondents don’t ever leave the house for work, putting in either 40 hours per week from home (19.8 percent) or more than 40 hours per week from home (22.2 percent). Among the remaining 58 percent of respondents, 13.6 percent work from home between 31 and 39 hours per week, 18.5 percent work from home between 21 and 30 hours per week, 8.6 percent work from home between 10 and 20 hours per week, and 17.3 percent work from home fewer than 10 hours per week.

In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of AWS Certified Security holders we heard from, 36.4 percent of those surveyed, are employed at the senior specialist level. The rest, in descending order, are either managers (20 percent of respondents), specialists (14.5 percent), senior managers (11.8 percent), rank-and-file employees (10 percent), directors (6.4 percent), and executives (0.9 percent).

A little more than half (54.6 percent) of the AWS Certified Security holders who responded to the survey are either IT veterans (27.3 percent), having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for more than a decade, or relative newcomers (also 27.3 percent), having been so employed for between 3 and 5 years. The rest have been plying their certified skills for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (6.4 percent of those surveyed), between 6 and 8 years (24.5 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (14.5 percent).

Finally, here’s the view of AWS Certified Security holders on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:

At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification:
Several times a day: 39.1 percent
Several times a week: 34.5 percent
Several times a month: 8.2 percent
Occasionally: 11.8 percent
Rarely: 6.4 percent

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 34.5 percent
Agree: 38.2 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 14.5 percent
Disagree: 2.3 percent
Strongly Disagree: 10 percent

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 31.9 percent
Agree: 40 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 14.5 percent
Disagree: 9.1 percent
Strongly Disagree: 4.5 percent

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 23.6 percent
Agree: 39.1 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 19.1 percent
Disagree: 8.2 percent
Strongly Disagree: 10 percent

PAST AWS CERTIFIED SECURITY – SPECIALTY DEEP FOCUS FEATURES

2022

2021

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