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 These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Data is everywhere in 2017. And where there is data, as many an enterprise or organization has learned in the last decade or two, there is potential business value. Often there is impressively vast potential business value. The booming interest in mining profitable intel from accumulated data has ignited a sort of latter-day gold rush, with many companies developing products and technologies to assist in the various deep dig initiatives.

One such company is Teradata Corporation, makers of Teradata, a relational database management system (RDBMS). There are several Teradata certifications, but we've singled out one in particular for today's report, the Teradata 14 Certified Professional (No. 32 on this year's Salary Survey 75 list).

The pool of Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders who responded to our 2016 Salary Survey is unusual in part because of its composition. While the largest single body of credential holders is from the United States, that group only accounts for 24.3 percent — roughly one quarter — of the total population. Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders from 25 other countries make up the balance of those surveyed: Argentina, Australia, Austria, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Among Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders in the United States, the average annual salary in 2016 was $123,340, with a median annual salary of $118,000. Outside the United States, the average annual salary number takes a nosedive, all the way down to $47,050, with an equally volatile median annual salary of $32,500.

Most Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders are men — 76.6 percent — but that leaves a somewhat stunning number of women in the mix. It's fairly rare to find a certification where the percentage of female credential holders reaches double digits, let alone climbs into the 20s. The Teradata 14 Certified Professional crowd is also relatively young, with 38.3 percent of those surveyed falling between the ages of 25 and 34, and additional 29.8 percent landing between the ages of 35 and 44, and a further 5.3 percent checking in between the ages of 19 and 24. The remaining roughly 26 percent are either between the ages of 45 and 54 (13.8 percent) or between the ages of 55 and 64 (12.8 percent).

The highest level of education attained by most Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders is either a bachelor's degree (53.2 percent of those surveyed) or master's degree (30.9 percent). An associate's (two-year) degree is the ceiling for some (4.3), though a notable 5.3 percent claim a professional degree (such as a juris doctor or M.D.).

An impressive 97.1 percent of Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders in the survey are employed full-time, versus just 1.1 percent who are unemployed, and 1 percent who claim part-time employment. Among those who have jobs, a larger-than-normal 55.3 percent of respondents work a standard 40 hours per week, while 30.9 percent put in between 41 and 50 hours. The outliers are the 8.5 percent who work more than 50 hours per week, and then 5.3 percent who put in between 31 and 39 hours.

As is often the case among survey respondents, Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders are most likely to be found at the senior specialist level (an even 50 percent of those surveyed) in the organizations where they work. An additional 40 percent are either employees (20.2 percent) or specialists (19.1 percent), with the rest of those surveyed either at the level of manager (8.5 percent) or senior manager (2.2 percent).

A core group of Teradata 14 Certified Professional holders (24.5 percent of those surveyed) are old hands, having worked in data management and analysis for more than a decade. On the other hand, half of those surveyed are newcomers to the field, having worked in data for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and two years (19.3 percent), or between 3 years and 5 years (29.7 percent). A further 27 percent are journeymen with either between 6 and 8 years (19.1 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (7.4 percent) in the field.

Finally, here's the view of Teradata 14 Certified Professional 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: 45.7 percent
Several times a week: 25.5 percent
Several times a month: 13.8 percent
Occasionally: 13.8 percent
Rarely: 1.2 percent

Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 13.9 percent
Agree: 56.4 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 19.1 percent
Disagree: 8.5 percent
Strongly Disagree: 2.1 percent

Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 17 percent
Agree: 47.9 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 19.2 percent
Disagree: 13.8 percent
Strongly Disagree: 2.1

Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 14 percent
Agree: 52.1 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 21.2 percent
Disagree: 10.6 percent
Strongly Disagree: 2.1 percent