Well done! Hitting upon this feature suggests you’re thinking about your future, and if it’s re-training you’re considering you’ve already done more than almost everybody else. Did you know that hardly any of us describe ourselves as contented at work – but most will just put up with it. We encourage you to be different and move forward – you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.
We recommend you seek advice first – talk to someone who’s familiar with your chosen field; a guide who can really get to know you and find the best job role for you, and analyse the learning programs which will get you there:
* Do you like to work collaborating with people? Is that as part of a team or with a lot of new people? Possibly operating on your own on specific tasks would be more your thing?
* What thoughts do you have with regard to the industry you’ll work in?
* Is this the last time you imagine you’ll re-train, and if so, do you suppose your new career will allow you to do that?
* Would you like your study to be in an industry where you believe your chances of gainful employment are high until retirement?
We would advise you to consider the computer industry – there are a larger number of roles than staff to fill them, plus it’s one of the few choices of career where the market sector is still growing. In contrast to the opinions of certain people, it isn’t just geeks looking at screens every day (some jobs are like that of course.) The vast majority of roles are occupied by ordinary men and women who enjoy better than average salaries.
A useful feature provided by many trainers is job placement assistance. This is to assist your search for your first position. With the growing demand for appropriately skilled people in this country right now, there’s no need to become overly impressed with this service however. It’s not as difficult as you may be led to believe to get a job as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications.
However, avoid waiting until you have completed your exams before bringing your CV up to date. As soon as you start a course, enter details of your study programme and place it on jobsites!
It’s not unusual to find that you’ll secure your first job whilst you’re still studying (occasionally right at the beginning). If your CV doesn’t show your latest training profile (and it’s not being looked at by employers) then you don’t stand a chance!
If you don’t want to travel too far to work, then you’ll often find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy may serve you better than the trainer’s recruitment division, for they’re going to be familiar with local employment needs.
A big frustration for a number of training providers is how much people are focused on studying to get top marks in their exams, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the role they’ve acquired skills for. Get out there and hustle – you might find it’s fun.
Of course: a training course or a qualification isn’t what this is about; the career you’re training for is. Far too many training organisations completely prioritise the piece of paper.
Don’t let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses who select a program that seems ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’ – and end up with a plaque on the wall for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.
Spend some time thinking about earning potential and what level of ambition fits you. This will influence what precise certifications will be expected and how much effort you’ll have to give in return.
Talk to an experienced industry advisor who understands the work you’re contemplating, and who can give you a detailed run-down of what you actually do in that role. Getting all these things right well before beginning a training course makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
In most cases, your normal person has no idea in what direction to head in a computing career, let alone which market they should be considering getting trained in.
Perusing long lists of different and confusing job titles is a complete waste of time. Surely, most of us have no idea what our own family members do for a living – so we have no hope of understanding the ins and outs of any specific IT role.
Consideration of the following issues is most definitely required when you want to reveal the right answers:
* The sort of individual you reckon you are – what kind of jobs you find interesting, plus of course – what makes you unhappy.
* Are you aiming to achieve a closely held dream – like working for yourself someday?
* Does salary have a higher place on your priority-scale than some other areas.
* Learning what the main work types and markets are – plus how they’re different to each other.
* It’s wise to spend some time thinking about the level of commitment you’ll put into your training.
The best way to avoid the industry jargon, and discover what’ll really work for you, have an informal meeting with an advisor with years of experience; someone who understands the commercial reality whilst covering all the qualifications.
Watch out that all accreditations you’re considering doing will be commercially viable and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment.
From a commercial standpoint, only top businesses such as Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA (as an example) really carry any commercial clout. Nothing else makes the grade.
(C) 2009. Look at LearningLolly.com for in-depth ideas on Network Security Training and Happy 40th Birthday Internet.
