IT Career Courses Simplified
There are four specialised areas of training in the full CompTIA A+ syllabus, of which 2 passes are needed for your A+ qualification. However restricting yourself to two of the four specialities is likely to leave your knowledge base somewhat light. At least learn about all four – employers will notice the difference.
As well as learning how to build PC’s and fix them, students of A+ will learn how to operate in antistatic conditions, how to fault find, to diagnose and to remotely access problems.
If you add Network+ to your CompTIA A+ training course, you will additionally be able to assist with or manage networks of computers, meaning you’re in a position to move further up the career path.
Many trainers have a handy Job Placement Assistance program, designed to steer you into your first job. Often, too much is made of this feature, because it is actually not that hard for well qualified and focused men and women to find a job in the IT industry – as employers are keen to find appropriately trained staff.
You would ideally have CV and Interview advice and support though; also we would encourage all students to get their CV updated as soon as they start a course – don’t wait till you’ve finished your exams.
A good number of junior support jobs have been offered to people who’re still on their course and haven’t got any qualifications yet. This will at least get you into the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s – rather than the ‘No’ pile.
If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy may be more appropriate than a centralised service, for they’re far more likely to be familiar with local employment needs.
To bottom line it, if you put as much hard work into finding your first IT position as into studying, you’re not likely to experience problems. Some trainees inexplicably spend hundreds of hours on their course materials and then just stop once they’ve passed their exams and seem to suppose that interviewers know they’re there.
Beware of putting too much emphasis, as many people do, on the certification itself. Training for training’s sake is generally pointless; you’re training to become commercially employable. You need to remain focused on where you want to go.
You may train for one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like a very ‘interesting’ program only to spend 20 years doing a job you hate!
Make sure you investigate what your attitude is towards career progression and earning potential, and if you’re ambitious or not. It’s vital to know what will be expected of you, what particular qualifications are required and in what way you can develop commercial experience.
Take advice from an experienced advisor, even if you have to pay a small fee – as it’s a lot cheaper and safer to find out at the start if you’ve chosen correctly, rather than find out after several years of study that the job you’ve chosen is not for you and have to return to the start of another program.
Students will sometimes miss checking on something that can make a profound difference to their results – the way their training provider actually breaks down and delivers the courseware, and into how many parts.
Many companies enrol you into a 2 or 3 year study programme, and deliver each piece one-by-one as you complete each section or exam. Sounds reasonable? Well consider these facts:
Many students find that the trainer’s ’standard’ path of training isn’t as suitable as another. They might find varying the order of study will be far more suitable. And what if you don’t get to the end at the pace they expect?
To be in the best situation you would have all the learning modules packed off to your address right at the beginning; the whole caboodle! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede the reaching of your goals.
Traditional teaching in classrooms, involving piles of reference textbooks, is often a huge slog for most of us. If this describes you, look for learning programmes that are multimedia based.
We see a huge improvement in memory retention when all our senses are brought into the mix – educational experts have expounded on this for decades now.
Interactive full motion video involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll find them fun and interesting.
It would be silly not to view a small selection of training examples before you purchase a course. You should expect video tutorials, instructor demo’s and audio-visual elements backed up by interactive lab’s.
Pick CD and DVD ROM based physical training media every time. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with broadband ‘downtime’ or slow-speeds.
Copyright 2009 S. Edwards. Check out Website Design Course or www.CareerRetrainingCourses.co.uk/ucareco.html.
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