A very small number of men and women in this country are pleased and contented with their working life. Inevitably, huge numbers will do nothing about it. You’ve reached this paragraph, which at least suggests that change is beckoning.
We’d politely request that in advance of taking a course of training, you discuss your plans with a person who has knowledge of the industry and can give you advice. The right person will be able to assess your personal likes and dislikes and help you sort out a role to fit you:
* Do you like to be around others at work? Are you better with new people or those you know well? Perhaps you prefer not to be disturbed and enjoy responsibilities that you can get on with on your own?
* 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?
* Are you confident that your industry training course will offer you employment opportunities, and have the ability to allow you to work until retirement?
We ask you to really explore the computer industry – there are more jobs than employees, and it’s a rare career choice where the industry is expanding. Despite what some people would have you think, IT is not full of nerdy individuals looking at screens the whole day (though those jobs exist.) Most positions are done by ordinary people who want to earn a very good living.
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.
Don’t buy training courses that only support students via a message system when it’s outside of usual working hours. Training companies will defend this with all kinds of excuses. The bottom line is – you want support at the appropriate time – not when it suits them.
The very best programs provide an online access 24 hours-a-day package combining multiple support operations throughout multiple time-zones. You get a single, easy-to-use interface that accesses the most appropriate office any time of the day or night: Support when you need it.
If you accept anything less than direct-access 24×7 support, you’ll regret it. It may be that you don’t use it during the night, but you may need weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.
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.
How can we possibly grasp what is involved in a particular job when we’ve never done it? Often we have never met anyone who performs the role either.
To come through this, we need to discuss a variety of definitive areas:
* The kind of person you think yourself to be – what kind of jobs you really enjoy, and conversely – what makes you unhappy.
* What time-frame are you looking at for retraining?
* What are your thoughts on travelling time and locality vs salary?
* 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.
Adding in the cost of examination fees up-front then including an exam guarantee is a common method with many companies. However, let’s consider what’s really going on:
These days, we tend to be a tad more knowledgeable about sales gimmicks – and most of us know that for sure it is something we’re paying for – it’s not because they’re so generous they want to give something away!
Qualifying on the first ‘go’ is what everyone wants to do. Taking your exams progressively in order and paying for them just before taking them sees you much better placed to get through first time – you prepare appropriately and think carefully about the costs.
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.
Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you’ve paid early for examination fees when there was no need to? Big margins are netted by organisations charging all their exam fees up-front – and hoping either that you won’t take them, or it will be a long time before you do.
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. Pop to or .