take me as example. when I graduated (BSc Computer Science from non-famous university) few years ago, I had hard time to find IT job with good pay. my 1st job was doing IT support with RM1.6k salary. after working for 2 years, I managed to get a new job with RM2.7k salary. after working for 1.5 years, I felt I lost my direction. I was standing in cross road. my career never improve and I was doing the routine works day-in day-out.

so I decided to pursue my study in order to develop my new career. at that time I had little savings to allow me to take Master Degree. the part-time programme would take 2 years to complete. so I done my research about what Master Degree I aim for and which college to study.

one day I talked to my friends. I found that they were taking ACCA, CIMA, CIM, CPA, etc. then I started asking them what was that. only at that moment I given to understand there was something called professional certificate, licensed/registered career. so I started doing research about IT professional certificate.

finally, I had 2 options in front of me to choose for my career development. one is taking Master Degree. another one is taking Professional Certification. say I have RM20k in hand.

option 1 - taking Master Degree. need 2 years part-time to complete it and get the certificate. then may be can find a higher position and get RM2k increment. so after 2 years, salary would be RM5k.

option 2 - taking professional certification. depends how many certificate i want to get. say as many as possible within RM20k. say need 1.5 years to change job. position and salary would be determined by the type and number of certification i hold at that moment.

at last I made decision to choose option 2. shorter route. Master degree can take later. within 6 months completed Cisco CCNA, CCDA, CCNP and CCDP. another 6 months completed Microsoft MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA and MCAD. another 6 months completed OCA, OCP and etc.

then I went to Headhunter to submit my resume and requested RM5k job. they very impressed about my qualification. within 1 week i received interview from MNC. during interview, I showed HR and interviewer my professional certifications. no question at all from them. within a week i got an offer of RM5k job. after working for 3 months, I saw from newspaper that a MNC hiring professionals with some certifications that I was holding at that time. so I just try to send my resume to them, request RM7.5k. within 1 week I received interview from them. after interview, HR called me on 3rd day to sign the offer letter stated RM7.5k. my story goes on. today my pay is 5 digits.

depends on you working for Gold or Silver or Premier Cisco Partner.

you are fresh graduate, am I correct?

Cisco Gold Partner normally won't pay lot to CCNA as they already have many CCNA holders. unless you have something they looking for.

i guess you working in Insurance company. since you doing financial planning, no harm to take CFP and RFP and LOMA. those certificates definitely add values to your career development. normally company subsidizes 100% or 50% for their staff to take the course.

in Financial industry, you better take ITIL since most of them is implementing the processes now.