Congratulations! Reading this subject matter means you’re likely to be contemplating your career, and if you’re considering retraining you’ve even now progressed more than the majority of people will. Are you aware that hardly any of us consider ourselves contented at work – yet the vast majority of us will take no corrective action. We implore you to be different and take action – don’t you think you deserve it.
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 courses you may be suited to:
* Are you happier left to your own devices at work or is being in a team environment an essential criteria for you?
* What elements are you looking for from the industry your job is in? (Things do change – look at the building trade, or banks for example.)
* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and will the market sector give you the confidence that will happen?
* Do you believe that retraining in your chosen sector will offer you employment opportunities, and offer the chance to work right up to the time you want to stop?
It’s important that you don’t overlook the IT industry – everyone knows that it’s getting bigger. It’s not all nerdy people looking at computer screens all day – it’s true some IT jobs demand that, but most jobs are carried out by people like you and me who are earning rather well.
With all the options available, it’s not really surprising that the majority of trainees have no idea which career they will follow.
What are the chances of us grasping what is involved in a particular job if we’ve never been there? Often we don’t even know anybody who does that actual job anyway.
The key to answering this dilemma in the best manner stems from a full conversation around a variety of topics:
* Personality factors plus what interests you – what work-related things you like and dislike.
* Is it your desire to reach a key dream – like working from home as quickly as possible?
* Is the money you make further up on your list of priorities than other factors.
* Learning what the normal IT roles and markets are – and what differentiates them.
* You need to understand the differences across all the training areas.
Ultimately, the best way of checking this all out is via a meeting with a professional that knows the industry well enough to give you the information required.
Have a conversation with any specialised advisor and we’d be amazed if they couldn’t provide you with many awful tales of how students have been duped by salespeople. Only deal with an industry professional that asks some in-depth questions to find out what’s appropriate to you – not for their paycheque! Dig until you find the very best place to start for you.
If you’ve got any work-based experience or some accreditation, you could discover that your appropriate starting-point is not the same as someone new to the industry.
Where this will be your first attempt at studying for an IT examination then you should consider whether to start out with some basic Microsoft package and Windows skills first.
Students often end up having issues because of a single courseware aspect very rarely considered: The method used to ’segment’ the courseware before being delivered to your home.
You may think that it makes sense (with most training taking 1-3 years to gain full certified status,) that a training provider will issue the courseware in stages, as you complete each part. Although:
Many students find that their training company’s standard order of study isn’t as suitable as another. It’s often the case that a slightly different order suits them better. Could it cause problems if you don’t get everything done in the allotted time?
Truth be told, the best solution is to obtain their recommendation on the best possible order of study, but to receive all the materials up-front. You’re then in possession of everything should you not complete it at their required pace.
A useful feature that many training companies provide is a programme of Job Placement assistance. This is designed to steer you into your first IT role. Ultimately it isn’t a complex operation to get a job – as long as you’re correctly trained and certified; because there’s still a great need for IT skills in the UK today.
Get your CV updated straight-away though – look to your training company for advice on how to do this. Don’t put it off till you’ve finished your exams.
Various junior support jobs have been bagged by students who are in the process of training and haven’t got any qualifications yet. This will at least get you on your way.
If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you may well find that an independent and specialised local employment service can generally serve you better than the trainer’s recruitment division, for they’re far more likely to be familiar with the local job scene.
A regular grievance of many course providers is how hard people are focused on studying to become certified, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the position they’re acquired skills for. Get out there and hustle – you might find it’s fun.
(C) Scott Edwards 2009. Browse around www.it-training–uk.co.uk or Click Here.