What can a student searching for Microsoft certified training expect to discover? Obviously, companies should be offering a selection of routes that cover the portfolio of training tracks certified by Microsoft.
Maybe you’d choose to look for a person who’s got industry experience, who can give you some ideas on what sort of job would suit you, and what sort of duties are suitable for a person with your abilities and personal preferences.
Courses must be tailored to make the most of your skills and abilities. Consequently, once you’ve decided on the right IT job for you, your next focus is the relevant route that will get you into that job.
Make sure that all your exams are current and also valid commercially – forget courses which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque.
If the accreditation doesn’t feature a major player like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe, then you may discover it won’t be commercially viable – as no-one will have heard of it.
The area most overlooked by trainees thinking about a course is ‘training segmentation’. This basically means the breakdown of the materials for timed release to you, which vastly changes where you end up.
You may think that it makes sense (with most training taking 1-3 years for a full commercial certification,) that a training provider will issue one module at a time, as you achieve each exam pass. However:
What would happen if you didn’t finish each and every exam within the time limits imposed? Often the prescribed exam order doesn’t come as naturally as another different route may.
In a perfect world, you want everything at the start – giving you them all to come back to at any time in the future – at any time you choose. Variations can then be made to the order that you complete each objective if another more intuitive route presents itself.
Many training companies offer a Job Placement Assistance program, to assist your search for your first position. The honest truth is that it’s not as hard as some people make out to land the right work – once you’re trained and certified; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.
Having said that, it’s important to have CV and Interview advice and support though; additionally, we would recommend all students to update their CV right at the beginning of their training – don’t wait until you’ve qualified.
Various junior support jobs have been offered to students who are still learning and have still to get qualified. This will at the very least get you on your way.
Actually, an independent and specialised local recruitment consultancy (who will get paid commission to place you) will be more pro-active than a centralised training company’s service. They should, of course, also be familiar with the local area and commercial needs.
Essentially, if you put the same amount of effort into getting a position as into studying, you won’t have any problems. A number of students strangely put hundreds of hours into their training course and then just stop once they’ve passed their exams and appear to be under the impression that jobs will come to them.
There is a tidal wave of change washing over technology over the next few decades – and this means greater innovations all the time.
We’ve only just begun to see just how technology will influence everything we do. Computers and the Internet will massively alter the way we view and interact with the rest of the world over the coming years.
The usual IT man or woman over this country as a whole will also receive significantly more money than equivalent professionals in much of the rest of the economy. Typical salaries are some of the best to be had nationwide.
There is a considerable national need for trained and qualified IT technicians. And as the industry constantly develops, it is likely there will be for a good while yet.
Author: Scott Edwards. Try www.CareerProgression.co.uk/pcaprog.html or Courses In Web Design.
