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Is one of your new year’s resolutions to invest in your career with a new certification?  The most valuable one to get in 2017 will be an AWS certification.  Here are a few reasons why IT recruiters suggest you consider going after one this year.

1.    You’ll make more money.  AWS certified professionals often make around $100,000 a year or more.  AWS certifications consistently topped income-oriented lists last year and there’s no reason they’ll fall this year.  There are still far too few AWS certified tech professionals out there for the number of open IT jobs that require it.  Even if you’re not looking for a new job, IT staffing companies find that many employers are happy to give raises or promotions to staff that get AWS certifications. Since the process for getting AWS certifications is so rigorous, employees nearly always become more valuable to their companies after attaining them.

2.    You want to work remotely.  IT recruiting firms find that many of the jobs that require AWS certifications also allow for partial or complete remote work.  This is true for a few reasons.  Firstly (and most obviously) cloud technology makes it easy to do this kind of work remotely.  Secondly, as mentioned before, AWS certified professionals are rare.  This means that employers need to woo them with excellent perks, which of course includes options for remote work.

3.    An AWS certification opens doors in many industries.  More and more companies are going to the cloud for their storage needs.  No matter what industry you’d like to work in, there are probably companies that use cloud technologies and are seeking IT professionals with AWS certifications.

4.    You want to invest in your future.  An AWS certification will continue to be valuable for many years to come.  The cloud will only become more popular and AWS seems to be the reigning provider.  The only certification that seems somewhat comparable is Azure (and for many reasons, some people argue that this certification is less valuable on a resume).  Amazon is dominating the web services market with a constant stream of new products and competitive pricing.  If you get an AWS certification now, IT staffing agencies will likely have no problem finding you IT jobs for years to come.