Crazy People Work From Home…

Everybody is busy these days, and generally should we decide to learn a new profession, getting educated at the same time as holding down a job is the only option open to us. Training tracks certified by Microsoft can fill that gap. You might like to find a training advisor, who can give you some ideas on whereabouts in industry would be best, and the kind of tasks that are a good match for someone with your personality. When you’ve settled on the career path you want, a suitable training program needs to be singled out that’s goes with your ability level and skill set. You should expect to be offered a bespoke package for you.

Many training companies offer a Job Placement Assistance program, to help you into your first commercial role. But don’t place too much emphasis on it - it isn’t unusual for training companies to overplay it. The fact of the matter is, the still growing need for IT personnel in the United Kingdom is why employers will be interested in you.

Help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews should be offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). Make sure you update that dusty old CV immediately - not after you’ve qualified! Various junior support roles have been bagged by trainees who’re still on their course and have still to get qualified. This will at the very least get you on your way. Generally, a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service (who will get paid commission to place you) will perform better than any sector of a centralised training facility. It also stands to reason that they’ll be familiar with local industry and the area better.

To bottom line it, as long as you focus the same level of energy into finding your first IT position as into studying, you’re not going to hit many challenges. A number of people inexplicably put hundreds of hours into their training course and do nothing more once certified and would appear to think that businesses will just discover them.

You should only consider learning programs which progress to commercially acknowledged exams. There’s an endless list of trainers offering their own ‘in-house’ certificates which will prove unusable in the real world. From the perspective of an employer, only the big-boys such as Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA (to give some examples) provide enough commercial weight. Nothing else hits the mark.

Don’t forget: a training program or a certification is not what you’re looking for; the career that you want to end up in is. A lot of colleges seem to put too much weight in the qualification itself. You may train for one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Don’t make the error of finding what seems like a program of interest to you and then put 10-20 years into a job you don’t like!

It’s well worth a long chat to see what expectations industry may have of you. What particular exams they’ll want you to gain and how to gain experience. Spend some time considering how far you think you’ll want to progress your career as it will present a very specific set of accreditations. All students are advised to chat with experienced industry personnel before following a particular retraining course. This helps to ensure it has the required elements for that career path.

Don’t accept anything less than the current Microsoft (or any other key organisation’s) authorised exam preparation packages. Sometimes people can get confused by practicing questions for their exams that don’t come from official boards. Sometimes, the terminology in the real exams is unfamiliar and it’s vital that you know this. Why don’t you test your knowledge through tests and practice in simulated exam environments before you take the real thing.

Many training providers only give support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later; It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover. Many only provide email support (too slow), and phone support is often to a call-centre that will make some notes and then email an advisor - who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a suitable time to them. This is not a lot of use if you’re stuck and can’t continue and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.

If you look properly, you’ll find professional companies which give students online support 24×7 - including evenings, nights and weekends. Never ever take second best where support is concerned. Many trainees who fall by the wayside, are in that situation because of a lack of support.

As there are a plethora of IT courses available, it can be difficult to find the right one. Select one that’s on a par with your personal character, and that’s in demand in the working environment. There’s a wide range of courses to choose from. Often people get started on Microsoft user skills, many go for career changes into Programming, Web Design, Networking or Databases - and these are all possible. However, with so many to choose from, don’t pluck a course out of the air. We recommend you get help from an expert who knows the computer industry, and can help you arrive at the right destination.

Today, there are many easily understood and sensibly priced options around that provide you with everything you need.

Sometimes, people don’t really get what IT means. It’s ground-breaking, exciting, and means you’re doing your bit in the gigantic wave of technology that will impact the whole world for generations to come. We’ve barely started to see just how technology is going to shape our lives. Technology and the web will massively revolutionise the way we view and interrelate with the world around us over the next few years.

A regular IT employee throughout Britain can demonstrate that they get considerably more money than his or her counterpart outside of IT. Standard IT wages are hard to beat nationally. It’s no secret that there is a great UK-wide demand for trained and qualified IT technicians. It follows that as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it appears this pattern will continue for the significant future.

Traditional teaching in classrooms, involving piles of reference textbooks, is often a huge slog for most of us. If all this is ringing some familiar bells, dig around for more practical courses which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Where possible, if we can involve all our senses in the learning process, our results will often be quite spectacular.

Programs are now found on CD and DVD discs, where your computer becomes the centre of your learning. Utilising the latest video technology, you can watch instructors demonstrating how something is done, and then have a go at it yourself - with interactive lab sessions. It’s very important to see some example materials from any company that you may want to train through. You’ll want to see that they include video, demonstrations and various interactive elements.

Opt for physical media such as CD or DVD ROM’s if possible. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.

Beware of putting too much emphasis, as many people do, on the training course itself. Training is not an end in itself; you’re training to become commercially employable. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. It’s common, for example, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then spend 20 miserable years in a tiresome job role, simply because you did it without the correct research when it was needed - at the start.

It’s essential to keep your focus on what it is you’re trying to achieve, and formulate your training based on that - avoid getting them back-to-front. Stay on target and study for a job you’ll still be enjoying many years from now. Seek guidance and advice from a skilled professional, even if you have to pay a small fee - it’s much safer and cheaper to discover early on if something is going to suit and interest you, instead of discovering after two full years that the job you’ve chosen is not for you and have to return to the start of another program.

A sneaky way that training companies make a lot more is through up-front charges for exams then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. This looks like a great idea for the student, until you think it through:

It’s very clear we’re still footing the bill for it - it’s not so hard to see that it’s been added into the overall price charged by the training company. It’s certainly not free - don’t think these companies are so generous with their money! The honest truth is that if students pay for each examination, when they’re ready to take them and not before, they’ll be in a better position to pass first time - because they are conscious of what they’ve paid and their application will be greater.

Go for the best offer you can find at the time, and avoid college mark-up fees. In addition, it’s then your choice where to do the examinations - which means you can stay local. Including money in your training package for examinations (plus interest - if you’re financing your study) is madness. Why fill a company’s coffers with extra money of yours simply to help their cash-flow! There are those who hope that you won’t get round to taking them - then they’ll keep the extra money. The majority of organisations will require you to sit pre-tests and prohibit you from re-taking an exam until you’ve completely proven that you’re likely to pass - making an ‘exam guarantee’ just about worthless.

With average Prometric and VUE exams in the United Kingdom costing around 112 pounds, it’s common sense to fund them one by one. It’s not in the student’s interests to fork out hundreds or thousands of pounds for exams when enrolling on a course. Commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.

Throw out a salesman who recommends a training program without a decent chat so as to understand your abilities as well as level of experience. Ensure that they have a generous array of training so they can give you an appropriate solution. With some commercial experience or certification, you may find that your starting point is not the same as someone new to the industry. Consider starting with some basic user skills first. This can help whip your basic knowledge into shape and make the learning curve a much easier going.