A fraction of the working population in the UK today are pleased and contented with their working life. Inevitably, huge numbers will take no action. The fact that you’ve got this far surely tells us that you’ve realised change must come.
Before you make decisions on individual courses, look for an advisor who will give you advice on which area will be right for you. An advisor who will take time to get a feel for your personality, and find out the best career for you to work towards:
* Would you like to work with others? If you say yes, are you a team player or are you more comfortable dealing with strangers? Maybe you’d rather be left alone to get on with things?
* Which criteria’s are fundamental when considering the market sector you’ll be employed in?
* Once you’ve trained, how many years work do anticipate working, and will the industry give you the confidence that will happen?
* Is it important for the course you’re re-training in to be in an area where you’re comfortable you’ll have a job up to the time you want to stop?
We would strongly recommend that you don’t overlook the IT sector – everyone knows that it is one of the few growth sectors. IT isn’t all techie people lost in their computer screens all day – we know those jobs exist, but the majority of roles are carried out by people like you and me who earn considerably more than most.
Make sure you don’t get caught-up, as can often be the case, on the certification itself. You’re not training for the sake of training; you’re training to become commercially employable. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve.
Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing a job for a lifetime. Don’t make the error of finding what seems like an ‘interesting’ training program only to spend 20 years doing a job you don’t like!
Never let your focus stray from where you want to get to, and then build your training requirements around that – not the other way round. Stay focused on the end-goal – making sure you’re training for a job that’ll reward you for many long and fruitful years.
It’s good advice for all students to chat with highly experienced advisors before they make a decision on a particular study programme. This helps to ensure it contains the relevant skills for the chosen career path.
It can be a nerve-racking task, but finding your first IT job can be made easier by some training providers because they offer a Job Placement Assistance service. The need for this feature can be bigged up out of proportion though – it’s quite easy for eager sales people to make it sound harder than it is. At the end of the day, the massive skills shortage in Britain is what will make you attractive to employers.
However, what is relevant is to have CV and Interview advice and support though; also we would encourage everybody to work on polishing up their CV the day they start training – don’t wait till you’ve finished your exams.
It’s possible that you won’t have even qualified when you’ll secure your initial junior support role; however this is not possible unless your CV is with employers.
If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then it’s quite likely that an independent and specialised local employment service may serve you better than a centralised service, due to the fact that they are much more inclined to be familiar with the jobs that are going locally.
A regular aggravation for various training providers is how hard students are prepared to work to become certified, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the position they’ve qualified for. Don’t give up when the best is yet to come.
Frequently, your normal student doesn’t have a clue what way to go about starting in a computing career, let alone what market they should be considering getting trained in.
Perusing a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is no use whatsoever. The majority of us don’t even know what our own family members do for a living – let alone understand the subtleties of a particular IT career.
Contemplation on several areas is essential when you need to get to the right solution that will work for you:
* Your personal interests and hobbies – these often define what areas will provide a happy working life.
* Are you hoping to get qualified due to a specific raison d’etre – for example, do you aim to work at home (working for yourself?)?
* Is the money you make further up on your wish list than other requirements.
* Learning what the main work types and sectors are – including what sets them apart.
* Having a proper look at how much time and effort you can give.
The best way to avoid the industry jargon, and uncover the most viable option for your success, have an in-depth discussion with an experienced professional; a person who can impart the commercial reality as well as the certifications.
One thing you must always insist on is comprehensive 24×7 direct-access support through trained professional instructors and mentors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually).
Try and find training with proper support available at all hours of the day and night (even if it’s early hours on Sunday morning!) Ensure you get access directly to professional tutors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you’re waiting for tutors to call you back when it’s convenient for them.
World-class organisations utilise an internet-based round-the-clock facility combining multiple support operations across the globe. You’re offered a single, easy-to-use environment that seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate no matter what time of day it is: Support when you need it.
Don’t under any circumstances take anything less. Support round-the-clock is the only way to go when it comes to IT training. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; usually though, we’re working when traditional support if offered.
