Monday, January 4, 2010

PC Support Training Online - Insights

By Jason Kendall

The CCNA is the way to go for training in Cisco. This teaches you how to work on maintaining and installing routers and network switches. Fundamentally, the internet is based upon huge numbers of routers, and commercial ventures who have several locations utilise them to allow their networks to keep in touch.

You might end up joining an internet service provider or a big organisation which is located on multiple sites but needs regular secure data communications. This career path is very well paid and quite specialised.

Achieving CCNA is the right level to aim for; at this stage avoid being tempted to do the CCNP. With experience, you'll know if it's relevant for you to have this next level up. If you decide to become more qualified, your experience will serve as the background you need to tackle the CCNP - as it's a very complex course - and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Watch out that all qualifications you're considering doing will be commercially viable and are bang up to date. The 'in-house' certifications provided by many companies are often meaningless.

Only properly recognised qualifications from the top companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco and CompTIA will have any meaning to employers.

Students hoping to begin a career in computers and technology normally aren't sure what direction they should take, let alone which sector to obtain accreditation for.

As without any commercial skills in computing, how could any of us be expected to understand what a particular job actually consists of?

Achieving an informed answer will only come through a meticulous investigation covering many varying factors:

* The sort of individual you are - which things you enjoy doing, and don't forget - what you definitely don't enjoy.

* Do you want to obtain training due to a precise raison d'etre - i.e. are you looking at working from home (self-employment?)?

* Is salary further up on your priority-scale than other factors.

* Getting to grips with what the normal work types and sectors are - plus how they're different to each other.

* Taking a serious look at the level of commitment, time and effort that you're going to put into it.

For most of us, considering all these ideas tends to require the help of an advisor who knows what they're talking about. And not just the accreditations - but also the commercial requirements of the market as well.

If your advisor doesn't ask many questions - it's likely they're just trying to sell you something. If they push a particular product before learning about your history and current experience level, then you know it's true.

If you have a strong background, or maybe some live experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then obviously your starting level will be quite dissimilar from a student that is completely new to the industry.

For students beginning IT exams and training for the first time, you might like to start out slowly, starting with some basic Microsoft package and Windows skills first. Usually this is packaged with any study program.

Consider the points below very carefully if you've been persuaded that that over-used sales technique about an 'Exam Guarantee' sounds great value:

Certainly it's not free - you're still being charged for it - the price has simply been included in the whole thing.

The honest truth is that if students pay for each progressive exam, one at a time, the chances are they're going to pass every time - as they are conscious of what they've paid and their application will be greater.

Isn't it in your interests to hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the appropriate time, not to pay any mark-up to a training course provider, and to take it closer to home - rather than possibly hours away from your area?

A lot of so-called credible training companies make huge profits because they're getting in the money for exams at the start of the course and cashing in if they're not all taken.

It's worth noting that exam re-takes via training course providers with an 'Exam Guarantee' are tightly controlled. You'll be required to sit pre-tests to make sure they think you're going to pass.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric tests costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, the most cost-effective way to cover the cost is by paying when you need them. There's no sense in throwing away maybe a thousand pounds extra at the start of your studies. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

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