Nice One! Discovering this piece means you’re likely to be pondering over your options, and if you’re considering retraining you’ve already done more than the majority of people will. Did you know that a small minority of us consider ourselves fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs – yet the vast majority of us will just put up with it. Why don’t you liberate yourself and take action – think about how you could enjoy Monday mornings.
We recommend you seek advice first – find an industry expert; an advisor who can discover your ideal job, and analyse the courses that will suit you:
* Is collaborating with others important to you? Would that be with the same people or with many new people? Maybe working on your own on specific tasks could suit you better?
* What elements are you looking for from the area of industry you choose? – We all know that things have changed, look at building and banking for instance.
* Is this the final time you want to study, and if so, do you believe this career choice will give you scope to do that?
* Would you like your study to be in an industry where you’re comfortable you’ll have a job up to retirement age?
A predominant industry in the UK to tick all of the above boxes is the computer industry, particularly IT. There is a requirement for greater numbers of knowledgeable workers in IT, just check out any jobs website and you’ll discover what we mean. Don’t misunderstand and think it’s full of techie geeks sitting in front ofscreens all the time – there are many more roles than that. Large numbers of workers in the industry are people of average intelligence, but they enjoy their work and get well paid.
A lot of training companies will only provide office hours or extended office hours support; not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly.
some companies only provide email support (slow), and phone support is usually just a call-centre which will just take down the issue and email it over to their technical team – who will then call back sometime over the next 24hrs, at a time suitable for them. This is no good if you’re stuck and can’t continue and have a one hour time-slot in which to study.
If you look properly, you’ll find professional companies that recommend and use direct-access online support 24×7 – even in the middle of the night.
Never ever take second best where support is concerned. The vast majority of IT hopefuls that can’t get going properly, are in that situation because they didn’t get the support necessary for them.
Considering the amount of options that are available, there’s no surprise that a large percentage of students balk at what job they will follow.
As having no commercial background in the IT industry, in what way could we be expected to know what any job actually involves?
Achieving any kind of right choice can only grow through a methodical study of several shifting key points:
* Personalities play a significant part – what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the things that really turn you off.
* What time-frame are you looking at for retraining?
* How important is salary to you – is it very important, or is enjoying your job a little higher on the scale of your priorities?
* Some students don’t fully understand the amount of work required to achieve their goals.
* You will need to understand what differentiates each area of training.
The bottom line is, the only real way of understanding everything necessary is from a good talk with someone that knows the industry well enough to provide solid advice.
Don’t accept anything less than the current Microsoft (or Cisco, CompTIA etc.) authorised simulation materials and exam preparation packages.
Don’t fall foul of relying on unauthorised exam papers and questions. The terminology of their questions is often somewhat different – and this could lead to potential problems when the proper exam time arrives.
As you can imagine, it’s very important to make sure you’ve thoroughly prepared for the real exam prior to doing it. Revising mock-up tests helps build your confidence and saves you time and money on thwarted exam entries.
A subtle way that colleges make a lot more is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. This sounds impressive, but let’s just examine it more closely:
Obviously it’s not free – you’re still coughing up for it – it’s just been included in your package price.
The fact is that if a student pays for each progressive exam, one at a time, they’ll be in a better position to get through on the first attempt – because they’ll think of what they’ve paid and will therefore apply themselves appropriately.
Why pay the college in advance for exam fees? Go for the best offer when you’re ready, rather than pay marked up fees – and take it closer to home – not at somewhere of their bidding.
Considerable numbers of unscrupulous training companies net huge profits by charging for examinations upfront and hoping that you won’t take them all.
Many training companies will require you to do mock exams and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you’ve completely proven that you’re likely to pass – making an ‘exam guarantee’ just about worthless.
With average Prometric and VUE examinations costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, it makes sense to pay as you go. It’s not in the student’s interests to fork out hundreds or thousands of pounds for exams when enrolling on a course. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.
(C) 2009 S. Edwards. Try CCNA Training or learninglolly.com/Learn_C_Programming.html.
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