Were it not for a constant influx of well educated network and PC support personnel, business in Great Britain (as elsewhere) would surely be drawn to a standstill. Consequently, there’s an ever growing requirement for technicians to support both the users themselves and their networks. The desire for the above mentioned members of the workforce is ever increasing, as everything becomes progressively more reliant on computers.
Being a part of the information technology industry is amongst the most thrilling and changing industries you could be involved with. To be working on the cutting-edge of technology is to be a part of the massive changes that will impact the whole world for generations to come.
Technological changes and interaction via the web is going to dramatically change our lives over the coming years; profoundly so.
And don’t forget salaries also – the income on average in the United Kingdom for the usual person working in IT is noticeably better than remuneration packages in other sectors. It’s a good bet that you’ll receive a much better deal than you’d expect to earn doing other work.
The requirement for properly certified IT professionals is guaranteed for quite some time to come, due to the ongoing growth in the marketplace and the vast shortage still present.
You should only consider learning programmes that’ll grow into commercially recognised exams. There’s an endless list of minor schools pushing unknown ‘in-house’ certificates that are essentially useless when it comes to finding a job.
If your certification doesn’t come from a company like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA, then you’ll probably find it will have been a waste of time – as it’ll be an unknown commodity.
With all the options available, is it any wonder that a large percentage of trainees don’t really understand the best career path they should even pursue.
How can we possibly grasp the tasks faced daily in an IT career when it’s an alien environment to us? Most likely we don’t even know anybody who does that actual job anyway.
Consideration of the following issues is essential if you want to uncover a solution that suits you:
* What nature of individual you reckon you are – what kind of jobs you get enjoyment from, and conversely – what you definitely don’t enjoy.
* Do you want to get certified because of a specific raison d’etre – for instance, are you pushing to work based from home (self-employment possibly?)?
* Have you thought about job satisfaction vs salary?
* Learning what typical work types and markets are – plus how they’re different to each other.
* You need to appreciate the differences between each individual training area.
To be honest, you’ll find the only real way to gain help on these matters is through a chat with a professional that has years of experience in computing (and chiefly the commercial needs and requirements.)
An all too common mistake that many potential students make is to look for the actual course to take, and not focus on the end result they want to achieve. Training academies have thousands of direction-less students who chose a course based on what sounded good – instead of what would yield the job they want.
It’s unfortunate, but thousands of new students commence training that sounds magnificent in the marketing materials, but which gets us a career that is of no interest at all. Try talking to typical university graduates for a real eye-opener.
Spend some time thinking about how much you want to earn and whether you’re an ambitious person or not. This will influence what accreditations you will need and what industry will expect from you in return.
Take guidance from an experienced industry advisor, even if you have to pay a small fee – it’s usually much cheaper and safer to investigate at the start whether your choices are appropriate, instead of finding out after several years of study that you aren’t going to enjoy the job you’ve chosen and now need to go back to square one.
(C) Scott Edwards 2010. Pop over to CCNA Training or www.a-computer-training.co.uk.