BreakPoint
How much is a CLD employee worth?
I bet you all know a friend of a friend that is a CLD and works happely at a good company.
How much does he/she make? What is reasonable? In what part of the world does he/she work?
My friend of a friend makes 37000 Euro a year in Europe, but does not know if he is worth more or less than that...
Very tragic really...
Feel free to comment!
Since I am a "consultant", moving from project to project rather than remaining at one company my I can't speak to the actual salary benefit of being a CLD other than to state that it has possibly made the difference between my getting a project and someone else. If he has been working at this company successfully I doubt that there would be much argument in his favor for an increase for becoming a CLD, unless of course they are "shopping out" his services to other customers, in which case it might be considered a sales tool for his company.
The difficulty with this question is that nobody is just a CLD. For example, I'm a CLD, but I'm also a mechanical engineer with a bunch of manufacturing and (some) electronics experience. You'd be hard pressed to find someone that is just a CLD for a salary survey.
@Heinen wrote:
How much does he/she make? What is reasonable? In what part of the world does he/she work?
I make $##,### per year, which I think is reasonable. I work in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.
You dont need the CLD to be worth something. It's what you can bring to a company, experience with the right skills. I am a CLD, (well I was in 2002 - 2004), but I not worth any less because I haven't officially got those three letters now and my LabVIEW skills haven't deminished. In fact my CV shows the diverse range of industries I have used LabVIEW in.
I am CTA level now, ( I haven't got that piece of paper either).
Certified TestStand Architect?
As I mentioned, the financial value of having a CLD tends more towards developers whose work is being marketed outside of their company, as opposed to developers who only develop for their employers. As an example, on my current project I am working with a mix of outside consultant/contractors (myself included) and internal "employee" developers. I got the interview for this gig partially because I have my CLD, so my having it possibly meant having this job or not. But the internal LabVIEW developers positions do not require a CLD, and unless it had meaning when they were hired won't make any difference in the salaries if they ended up getting one afterwards. As Ray states, the CLD is just a small part of determining a developers value in comparison to the other skills they bring to the table, and in my experience generally doesn't make much difference once a developer is hired. I am seeing more customers asking me in the initial discussion phase whether I have one, but I also bring many years of both LabVIEW development and engineering.
That having been said, taking, and passing the exams does provide a level of affirmation, if only to one's self, of a skill level. And in these economic times having it on a resume/CV doesn't hurt! 
Oops I should have said CLA - Certified LabVIEW Architect.
(I've CTA on the brain at the moment as is what I am currently studying for)
I've got the answer. A CLD employee is worth $100K+ a year. That's what I keep telling my employer. It isn't working very well though. 
