Shade, Shutters & Blinds

Nice One! Finding this article suggests you’re contemplating your career, and if it’s new career training you’re deliberating over that means you’ve taken it further than most. It’s a frightening thought that just one in ten of us would say we are fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs – yet most will do absolutely nothing about it. Why not liberate yourself and take action – think about how you could enjoy Monday mornings.

We recommend you seek advice first – find someone who knows the industry; an advisor who can discover your ideal job, and then show you the career tracks you may be suited to:

* Would you like lots of contact with people? If so, do you like working with the same people or are you hoping to meet new people? Or would you rather work alone with a task?

* Are you thinking carefully about which market sector you maybe could work in? (Post credit crunch, it’s even more crucial to get it right.)

* Is this the last time you envisage re-training, and if so, will this new career service that need?

* Do you believe that your industry training course is commercially viable, and will provide the facility to keep you in work up to retirement age?

We would advise that your number one choice is IT – it’s common knowledge that it’s getting bigger. IT isn’t all techie geeks lost in their computer screens every day – we know there are those roles, but most jobs are done by ordinary people who do very well out of it.

A lot of training companies only give basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); very few go late in the evening or at weekends.

Beware of institutions who use call-centres ‘out-of-hours’ – with the call-back coming in during normal office hours. It’s not a lot of help when you’ve got study issues and want support there and then.

We recommend that you search for training programs that utilise many support facilities across multiple time-zones. Each one should be integrated to enable simple one-stop access together with 24 hours-a-day access, when you need it, with no fuss.

If you fail to get yourself direct-access 24×7 support, you’ll regret it very quickly. You may avoid using the support during the night, but you may need weekends, early mornings or even late evenings at some point.

Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the more academic tracks into IT – why then is this happening?

Accreditation-based training (as it’s known in the industry) is far more specialised and product-specific. Industry has become aware that such specialised knowledge is necessary to cope with a technologically complex workplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the key players in this arena.

Of course, a reasonable amount of relevant additional information has to be covered, but essential specialisation in the areas needed gives a vendor trained person a distinct advantage.

In simple terms: Accredited IT qualifications give employers exactly what they’re looking for – it says what you do in the title: for example, I am a ‘Microsoft Certified Professional’ in ‘Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2003′. Consequently companies can look at their needs and which qualifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

Always expect the current Microsoft (or Cisco, CompTIA etc.) authorised simulation materials and exam preparation packages.

Due to the fact that many IT examination boards are American, you’ll need to be used to the correct phraseology. You can’t practice properly by merely going through the right questions – they must be in an exam format that exactly replicates the real thing.

Ensure that you test whether you’re learning enough by doing quizzes and practice exams before you take the real thing.

Frequently, your average IT hopeful doesn’t know how they should get into Information Technology, or even which area they should be considering getting trained in.

How likely is it for us to understand the tasks faced daily in an IT career when we haven’t done that before? Maybe we don’t even know anybody who works in that sector anyway.

Consideration of these different factors is most definitely required when you want to discover the right answers:

* Personalities play a major part – what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the activities that ruin your day.

* What time-frame are you looking at for the retraining?

* What salary and timescale requirements you may have?

* Getting to grips with what the main job types and markets are – including what sets them apart.

* What effort, commitment and time you’re prepared to spend on obtaining your certification.

In these situations, your only option to gain help on these matters tends to be through a good talk with someone that has experience of computing (and chiefly it’s commercial needs and requirements.)

(C) Jason Kendall. Visit LearningLolly.com for logical ideas on CompTIA Training Courses and Computer Training Courses.