by Jason Kendall
If your dream is to become a great web designer with relevant qualifications for today’s employment market, your must-have certification is Adobe Dreamweaver. In order to take advantage of Dreamweaver commercially in web design, a thorough comprehension of the complete Adobe Web Creative Suite (including Flash and Action Script) is in our opinion essential. Having such skills means, you can go onto become either an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP).
The construction of a website is only the beginning of what’s needed - in order to maintain content, create traffic, and work with dynamic database-driven sites, you’ll be required to have other programming skills, for example PHP, HTML, and MySQL. In addition, you should gain a practical knowledge of E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Being at the forefront of progressive developments in new technology gives you the best job satisfaction ever. You become one of a team of people creating a future for us all. We’re barely beginning to comprehend how all this will mould and change our lives. The way we interact with the world will be inordinately affected by computers and the web.
The money in IT isn’t to be sniffed at either - the typical remuneration throughout Britain for a typical person working in IT is considerably higher than the national average. Odds are that you’ll earn quite a bit more than you’d typically expect to bring in elsewhere. Due to the technological sector emerging with no sign of a slow-down, it’s predictable that the requirement for qualified professionals will continue actively for quite some time to come.
If the computing industry provides such an array of exceptional job prospects for us all - what are the questions we should ask and what aspects should we be considering?
Far too many companies are all about the certification, and avoid focusing on the reasons for getting there - which will always be getting the job or career you want. Your focus should start with the final destination in mind - don’t make the vehicle more important than the destination. It’s an awful thing, but the majority of trainees kick-off study that often sounds amazing in the prospectus, but which gets us a career that doesn’t fulfil at all. Try talking to typical college students and you’ll see where we’re coming from.
Stay tuned-in to where you want to go, and build your study action-plan from that - not the other way round. Stay on target and study for a career you’ll enjoy for years to come. You’d also need help from an experienced person who can explain the sector you’re considering, and who can offer ‘A day in the life of’ outline for that career-path. This really is essential because you need to know if this change is right for you.
A lot of training companies will only offer office hours or extended office hours support; most won’t answer after 8-9pm at the latest and frequently never at the weekends. Try and find training with help available at any time you choose (no matter if it’s in the middle of the night on a weekend!) Ensure you get 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not simply some messaging service that means you’re parked in a queue of others waiting to be called back during office hours.
Top training companies have many support offices active in different time-zones. An online system provides an interactive interface to provide a seamless experience, no matter what time you login, help is just seconds away, with no hassle or contact issues. If you accept anything less than direct-access round-the-clock support, you’ll very quickly realise that you’ve made a mistake. You may avoid using the support during the night, but consider weekends, late evenings or early mornings.
Usually, trainers will provide a bunch of books and manuals. It’s not a very interesting way to learn and not really conducive to achieving retention. Recent studies into the way we learn shows that memory is aided when we involve as many senses as possible, and we get practically involved in what we’re studying.
Interactive audio-visual materials utilising video demo’s and practice lab’s will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And you’ll find them fun and interesting. Every company that you look at should willingly take you through some samples of the materials provided for study. Make sure you encounter videos of instructor-led classes and interactive areas to practice in.
Purely on-line training should be avoided. You want physical CD/DVD ROM course materials where possible, so you can use them wherever and whenever you want - you don’t want to be reliant on your broadband being ‘up’ 100 percent of the time.
The way a programme is physically sent to you isn’t always given the appropriate level of importance. How is the courseware broken down? And in what sequence and do you have a say in when you’ll get each part? Most companies will sell you a program spread over 1-3 years, and courier the materials in pieces as you complete each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable - until you consider the following: What if there are reasons why you can’t finish each and every exam? What if you don’t find their order of learning is ideal for you? Because of nothing that’s your fault, you mightn’t complete everything fast enough and consequently not get all your materials.
For future safety and flexibility, many trainees now want to request that all their modules (now paid for) are posted to them in one go, with nothing held back. You can then decide how fast or slow and in what order you want to finish things.
One crafty way that colleges make a big mark-up is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. It looks like a good deal, till you look at the facts:
They’ve allowed costings for it by some means. You can be assured it’s not a freebie - they’ve just worked it into the package price. People who take each progressive exam, funding them as they go are much more likely to pass. They are thoughtful of their investment and prepare more appropriately to be up to the task.
Doesn’t it make more sense to find the best exam deal or offer when you’re ready, instead of paying a premium to a college, and to do it locally - rather than in some remote centre? Huge profits are secured by many training colleges that incorporate exam fees into the cost of the course. Many students don’t take them for one reason or another and so the company is quids-in. Believe it or not, providers exist that rely on that fact - as that’s where a lot of their profit comes from. Pay heed to the fact that, with ‘Exam Guarantees’ from most places - the company decides when you can do your re-takes. They’ll only allow a re-take once completely satisfied.
With the average price of Pro-metric and VUE tests costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, it makes sense to pay as you go. Why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra at the beginning of your training? Commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
Some training providers have a handy Job Placement Assistance service, to help you into your first commercial role. The honest truth is that it isn’t a complex operation to get your first job - assuming you’re well trained and qualified; employers in this country need your skills.
Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate and wait until you’ve finished your training before getting your CV updated. The day you start training, mark down what you’re doing and get promoting! Quite often, you will be offered your first job while you’re still a student (sometimes when you’ve only just got going). If you haven’t updated your CV to say what you’re studying - or it’s not getting in front of interviewers, then you’re not even going to be known about! If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy can generally be of more use than some national concern, for they’re going to be familiar with local employment needs.
In a nutshell, if you put as much hard work into landing a job as into studying, you’re not likely to experience problems. Some people curiously invest a great deal of time on their learning program and just give up once they’ve passed their exams and would appear to think that businesses will just discover them.
