SAS® Certification As a Tool for Professional Development

In today’s competitive job market, both recent graduates and experienced professionals are looking for ways to set themselves apart from the crowd. SAS certification is one way to do that. SAS Institute Inc. offers a range of exams to validate your knowledge level. In writing this paper, we have drawn upon our personal experiences, remarks shared by new and longtime SAS users, and conversations with experts at SAS. We discuss what certification is and why you might want to pursue it. Then we share practical tips you can use to prepare for an exam and do your best on exam day. All information is accurate as of June 2015. OVERVIEW OF CERTIFICATION Over 82,594 SAS certification credentials have been awarded to 59,208 SAS Certified Professionals, 13,383 in 2014 alone. Currently, 46% of credentials have been awarded to test takers in the United States, and 54% to those taking exams outside the United States. There has been double digit growth in the number of certifications awarded each year for the last five years. The rate of growth varies among the certifications offered. For example, the number of Statistical Business Analyst certificates awarded is growing at a faster rate than those for Base and Advanced Programming. This is a global program with complete portability. The same certification exams are available everywhere, but training options may vary. The online options (practice exams and e-learning opportunities) are the same in all countries, but instructor-based classes may differ in the frequency with which they are offered. All development of training materials and classes is done in the United States, and is then customized for other countries. All exams are offered in English and most are also offered in Japanese, but exams are not offered in any other languages.