Training in Computer Support – Update

Congratulate yourself that you’re on the right track! A fraction of the population enjoy their work and find it stimulating, but vast numbers simply moan about it and take no action. Because you’ve done research we have a hunch that you’re at least considering retraining, so you’ve already stood out from the crowd. Take your time now to research and follow-through.

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 do you require from the market sector you work in? (Things do change – look at the building trade, or banks for example.)

* 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?

* Do you expect your new knowledge base to give you the chance to get a good job, and keep working until sixty five?

Prioritise Information Technology, that’s our best advice – unusually, it’s one of the growing market sectors in this country and overseas. Salaries are also more generous than most.

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!

Getting your CV considered is more than not being known. A surprising amount of junior positions are bagged by trainees (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.)

Most often, a specialist locally based recruitment consultancy (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) is going to give you a better service than a centralised training company’s service. They should, of course, also be familiar with the local area and commercial needs.

Not inconsiderable numbers of men and women, apparently, put a great deal of effort into their studies (sometimes for years), and then just stop instead of trying to get the right position. Market yourself… Do your best to put yourself out there. A job isn’t just going to bump into you.

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.

It’s common, in some situations, to thoroughly enjoy one year of training and then spend 20 miserable years in a job you hate, as a consequence of not performing the correct research when you should’ve – at the outset.

Never let your focus stray from what you want to achieve, and build your study action-plan from that – avoid getting them back-to-front. Keep your eyes on your goals and study for something you’ll enjoy for years to come.

It’s good advice for all students to speak with an industry professional before following a particular study program. This gives some measure of assurance that it contains the commercially required skills for the chosen career path.

Looking at the myriad of choice out there, does it really shock us that the majority of trainees get stuck choosing the job they could be successful with.

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.

Getting to the right answer really only appears through a thorough investigation of many unique criteria:

* Personality plays an important role – what things get your juices flowing, and what are the areas that really turn you off.

* Are you driven to re-train for a specific motive – i.e. do you aim to work from home (maybe self-employment?)?

* Does salary have a higher place on your priority-scale than some other areas.

* Considering the huge variation that Information Technology encapsulates, it’s a requirement that you can take in how they differ.

* You need to appreciate the differences between each area of 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.

You have to be sure that all your exams are current and what employers are looking for – you’re wasting your time with programmes which provide certificates that are worthless because they’re ‘in-house’.

All the major IT organisations like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA have nationally acknowledged proficiency courses. Huge conglomerates such as these can make sure you stand out at interview.

(C) 2009. Hop over to LearningLolly.com for the best career advice on IT Jobs and Comptia Training Conference.