In the world of technical certifications, there are those that matter and those that don’t. It’s like college degrees. The MBA from Harvard Business School counts for more than the one from your local community college. The rigors of completing the business track at Wharton are going to trump those at your local university, unless that university happens to be Sloan at MIT.

So what technical certifications matter and which ones are just money makers? Again, like in business, it’s about supply and demand and the end result is salary. The more in-demand and harder to obtain the technical certification, the higher you’ll be paid for it. You could argue that the certification is the reflection of the candidate or you could follow the mantra of “fake it until you make it.” No matter what you think, the numbers don’t lie, some certs are paid well and some aren’t. Here are the ones that are paid the most, taken from TechRepublic’s 2010 IT Skills and Salary report.

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) – $99,928
• Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) – $93,953
• VMware Certified Professional – $91,271
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) – $89,864
• MS Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) – $86,454

If you want to be paid well, you need one of these top five technical certifications.

(Photo: amagill)