Good for you! Hitting upon this feature suggests you’re contemplating your career, and if it’s re-training you’re considering you’ve even now progressed more than the majority of people will. It’s a frightening thought that surprisingly few of us are satisfied and happy at work - but the majority will just put up with it. We implore you to liberate yourself and move forward - you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.
Before you make decisions on individual training courses, seek out someone who can help you sort out which area will be right for you. Someone who can get a feel for your personality, and find out the best career for you to work towards:
* Are you hoping to be involved with others in the workplace? Would that be with the same people or with a lot of new people? It could be working by yourself with your own methodology may be your preference?
* Have you given much thought to which sector you could be employed in? (Post credit crunch, it’s more important than ever to choose carefully.)
* Once you’ve qualified, would you like your new abilities to serve you till you retire?
* Are you worried about the chance of new employment opportunities, and being in demand in the employment market all the way until retirement?
Don’t overlook the IT sector, that’s our recommendation - it’s one of the few growth areas throughout Europe. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.
An area that’s often missed by new students considering a training program is the issue of ‘training segmentation’. Basically, this means the way the course is divided up to be delivered to you, which completely controls what you end up with.
Delivery by courier of each element stage by stage, as you complete each module is the typical way that your program will arrive. This sounds logical, but you might like to consider this:
Many students find that the company’s usual training route isn’t ideal for them. They might find a different order of study is more expedient. And what if you don’t get to the end inside of the expected timescales?
To be in the best situation you would have all the learning modules sent to you right at the start; every single thing! This way, nothing can happen down the line which could affect your capability of finishing.
Starting from the viewpoint that we need to find the market that sounds most inviting first, before we can contemplate what development program meets that requirement, how can we choose the correct route?
Since in the absence of any solid background in Information Technology, how should we possibly know what a particular job actually consists of?
To attack this, there should be a discussion of a number of unique issues:
* Personality plays an important role - what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the areas that ruin your day.
* For what reasons you’re starting in IT - maybe you want to triumph over some personal goal like being self-employed for instance.
* How highly do you rate salary - is it the most important thing, or is day-to-day enjoyment a lot higher on the scale of your priorities?
* Considering all that computing covers, it’s a requirement that you can absorb what is different.
* How much effort you’ll commit getting qualified.
For most of us, sifting through these areas requires a good chat with an advisor who can explain things properly. Not only the qualifications - but the commercial expectations and needs also.
Don’t forget: the actual training or the accreditation is not the ultimate goal; a job that you’re getting the training for is. Too many training companies put too much weight in the certificate itself.
It’s possible, in some situations, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then find yourself trapped for decades in a job you hate, simply because you did it without some decent due-diligence at the beginning.
Set targets for what you want to earn and how ambitious you are. This can often control what particular certifications will be required and what you can expect to give industry in return.
All students are advised to talk with an experienced industry professional before they embark on a retraining programme. This is essential to ensure it contains the commercially required skills for the career path that has been chosen.
Some training providers offer a Job Placement Assistance service, to help you into your first commercial role. But don’t place too much emphasis on it - it’s quite easy for eager sales people to make too much of it. Ultimately, the still growing need for IT personnel in the UK is what will enable you to get a job.
Nevertheless, don’t procrastinate and wait until you’ve qualified before polishing up your CV. As soon as your training commences, mark down what you’re doing and tell people about it!
It can happen that you haven’t even qualified when you’ll secure your initial junior support role; however this isn’t going to happen if interviewers don’t get sight of your CV.
Normally you’ll get quicker results from a specialised and independent local recruitment service than you will through a training course provider’s national service, because they will understand the local industry and employment needs.
Various students, so it seems, spend evenings and weekends on their training and studies (sometimes for years), only to do nothing special when finding the right position. Sell yourself… Do your best to let employers know about you. Don’t think a job’s just going to jump out in front of you.
Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Look at HowToChooseACareer.co.uk or New Careers Information.
Technorati Tags: advice, career, computer, education, games, hobbies, home, Money, self improvement, shop, software, technology, Uncategorized, web, work