IT Careers Training Examined

Congratulate yourself that you’ve already got this far! Only one in ten folks say they enjoy their work, but vast numbers complain to each other and take no action. Because you’ve done research it’s likely that you’ve a personal interest in re-training, which means you’re already ahead of the pack. Take your time now to discover where you want to go and get going.

We’d politely request that in advance of taking any individual training program, you discuss your plans with a person who has knowledge of the industry and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and assist in finding the right role for you:

* Do you like to be around others at work? Is it meeting new people or being part of a team? Or you may prefer task-orientated work that you can complete alone?

* The building trade and the banking industry are facing difficulties at the moment, so it’s important to look very carefully at what sector will answer your needs?

* When you’ve done all your re-training, are you hoping your new skills will give you the ability to get you jobs for the rest of your working life?

* Do you have the assurance that retraining in your chosen sector will make you employable, and offer the chance to be employed until retirement?

Think about the IT sector, that’s our recommendation – unusually, it’s one of the market sectors still on the grow in the UK and Europe. In addition, salaries and benefits exceed most other industries.

One useful service offered by some training providers is job placement assistance. This is designed to steer you into your first IT role. Don’t get caught up in this feature – it’s easy for their marketing department to overstate it’s need. At the end of the day, the massive skills shortage in Great Britain is the reason you’ll find a job.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV is sometimes offered (alternatively, check out one of our sites for help). Ensure you bring your CV right up to date straight away – not when you’re ready to start work!

It’s not unusual to find that you’ll land your first position whilst you’re still studying (even when you’ve just left first base). If you haven’t updated your CV to say what you’re studying (and it’s not being looked at by employers) then you won’t even be considered!

If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then it’s quite likely that an independent and specialised local employment service could serve you better than a centralised service, due to the fact that they’re far more likely to be familiar with the local job scene.

Fundamentally, if you put as much hard work into getting a position as into training, you’re not likely to experience problems. Some people strangely put hundreds of hours into their learning program and just give up once they’ve passed their exams and appear to be under the impression that jobs will come to them.

If your advisor doesn’t dig around with lots of question – it’s more than likely they’re actually nothing more than a salesman. If they wade straight in with a specific product before learning about your history and current experience level, then you know it’s true.

Remember, if you’ve had any relevant accreditation or direct-experience, then you will often be able to begin at a different level to a trainee with no history to speak of.

It’s wise to consider user-skills and software training first. This can set the scene for your on-going studies and make the transition to higher-level learning a less steep.

You have to be sure that all your certifications are current and commercially required – you’re wasting your time with programs which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you’d printed it yourself).

From an employer’s perspective, only top businesses such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (as an example) will make the right impression. Anything less won’t make the grade.

Think about the points below carefully if you believe that old marketing ploy of examination guarantees seems like a good idea:

Clearly it’s not free – you’re still being charged for it – it’s just been included in your package price.

We all want to pass first time. Progressively working through your exams one by one and funding them as you go makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you prepare appropriately and are aware of the costs involved.

Find the best exam deal or offer available when you’re ready, and save having to find the money early. You also get more choice of where you do the examinations – so you can find somewhere local.

Paying upfront for exam fees (and if you’re financing your study there’ll be interest on that) is bad financial management. Don’t line companies bank accounts with your hard-earned cash just to give them a good cash-flow! A lot bank on the fact that you don’t even take them all – but they won’t refund the cash.

It’s also worth noting that many exam guarantees are worthless. The majority of companies won’t be prepared to pay for you to re-take until you’ve completely satisfied them that you’re ready this time.

Prometric and VUE exams are in the region of 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why pay exorbitant ‘Exam Guarantee’ fees (often covertly rolled into the cost of the course) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.

(C) S. Edwards 2009. Browse around MCITP Training or HR Career.