What might someone searching for training tracks certified by Microsoft expect to discover? Obviously, training companies should give access to a number of courses that cover the range of Microsoft certified training tracks. Perhaps you’d hope to have a discussion on the careers you might go for once you have passed your exams, and the type of individual that work might be right for. Lots of people like to discuss what would be best for them. Once you’ve decided on the career track for you, a relevant course must be picked that’s goes with your skills and abilities. You should expect to be offered a bespoke package for your needs.
Finding your first job in the industry can be a little easier if you’re supported with a Job Placement Assistance facility. But don’t place too much emphasis on it – it’s quite easy for their marketing department to overplay it. The fact of the matter is, the need for well trained IT people in Great Britain is what will enable you to get a job.
Get your CV updated straight-away though (advice can be sought on this via your provider). Don’t delay for when you’re ready to start work. You may not have got to the stage where you’ve got to the exam time when you will be offered your first junior support position; but this is not possible if interviewers don’t get sight of your CV. In many cases, an independent and specialised local employment service (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) is going to give you a better service than a division of a training company. It also stands to reason that they’ll know the local industry and employment needs.
Just be sure that you don’t put hundreds of hours of effort into your studies, then call a halt and expect somebody else to find you a job. Stand up for yourself and get out there. Put as much energy and enthusiasm into landing your new role as you did to gain the skills.
Don’t get hung-up, as many people do, on the training course itself. You’re not training for the sake of training; you’re training to become commercially employable. Focus on the end-goal. It’s an awful thing, but the majority of trainees kick-off study that often sounds magnificent from the prospectus, but which gets us a career that is of no interest. Talk to many university students and you’ll see where we’re coming from.
Stay focused on what it is you’re trying to achieve, and build your study action-plan from that – don’t do it the other way round. Keep your eyes on your goals and ensure that you’re training for an end-result that will keep you happy for many years. Long before starting a study program, it makes sense to chat over the specific market needs with an experienced advisor, to make sure the training programme covers all the necessary elements.
Typically, a new trainee will not know to ask about a vitally important element – the way the company actually breaks down and delivers the course ware, and into what particular chunks. Training companies will normally offer some sort of program spread over 1-3 years, and drop-ship the materials to you piecemeal as you finish each section. This sounds reasonable until you consider the following: Often, the staged breakdown pushed by the company’s salespeople doesn’t suit all of us. It may be difficult to get through all the sections inside their defined time-scales?
In an ideal situation, you want ALL the study materials up-front – so you’ll have them all to come back to at any time in the future – irrespective of any schedule. Variations can then be made to the order that you move through the program where a more intuitive path can be found.
When did you last consider how safe your job is? Typically, we only think of this after something goes wrong. However, The cold truth is that our job security simply doesn’t exist anymore, for most of us. But a quickly growing market-place, where staff are in constant demand (because of a growing shortage of fully trained professionals), opens the possibility of lasting job security.
A recent national e-Skills investigation showed that twenty six percent of all available IT positions cannot be filled because of a huge deficit of appropriately certified professionals. Meaning that for every four jobs that exist around Information Technology (IT), we’ve only got three properly trained pro’s to fill that need. Accomplishing proper commercial IT exams is therefore an effective route to a continuing as well as gratifying profession. Undoubtedly, this really is the very best time to retrain into the computer industry.
