Market and Investment

Congratulate yourself that you’re reading this article! A fraction of the population say they enjoy their work, but vast numbers complain to each other and that’s it. As you’ve reached this page we have a hunch that you’ve a personal interest in re-training, so well done to you. Take your time now to research and follow-through.

We’d strongly advise that in advance of taking a training course, you have a conversation with someone who can see the bigger picture and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and help you sort out a role to fit you:

* Is collaborating with others important to you? Would you prefer to work with a small team or with many new people? Maybe working on your own in a task-based situation would give you pleasure?

* Which criteria’s are fundamental when considering the market sector you’ll be employed in?

* Should this be a one off time that you’ll need to re-qualify?

* Do you believe that your chosen retraining will make you employable, and offer the chance to keep you in work until retirement?

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.

A fatal Faux-Pas that we encounter all too often is to choose a career based on a course, and not focus on where they want to get to. Training academies are stacked to the hilt with students that chose a program because it looked interesting - instead of the program that would surely get them an enjoyable career or job.

It’s not unheard of, for instance, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study and then spend 20 miserable years in something completely unrewarding, simply because you did it without the correct research when you should’ve - at the outset.

Make sure you investigate what your attitude is towards career progression and earning potential, and how ambitious you are. It’s vital to know what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, what exams are needed and how to develop your experience.

You’d also need help from a professional who can explain the market you’ve chosen, and who can offer ‘A day in the life of’ synopsis of what you actually do on the job. These things are essential because you need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.

A service offered by some training providers is job placement assistance. This is to help you get your first commercial position. Sometimes, people are too impressed with this facility, as it is actually not that hard for any motivated and trained individual to find work in this industry - as employers are keen to find appropriately skilled employees.

However, don’t wait till you’ve qualified before updating your CV. As soon as you start studying, enter details of your study programme and get promoting!

A good number of junior support roles have been offered to trainees who are still studying and have yet to take their exams. This will at the very least get you into the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s - rather than the ‘No’ pile.

The most reliable organisations to help you land that job are usually local IT focused employment agencies. As they’re keen to place you to receive their commission, they have the necessary incentive to try that bit harder.

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.

Often, the key to unlocking this issue properly lies in a deep conversation around several different topics:

* Your personal interests and hobbies - these often define what areas will provide a happy working life.

* What length of time can you allocate for the retraining?

* Have you thought about salary vs job satisfaction?

* 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.

In these situations, you’ll find the only real way to investigate these issues is through a chat with an advisor or professional who has experience of Information Technology (and more importantly the commercial requirements.)

It’s so important to understand this key point: You have to get round-the-clock 24×7 professional support from mentors and instructors. You will have so many problems later if you let this one slide.

Don’t buy certification programs which can only support you through a message system after office-staff have gone home. Trainers will always try to hide the importance of this issue. Essentially - you want support at the appropriate time - not as-and-when it’s suitable for their staff.

The best trainers utilise several support facilities active in different time-zones. By utilising an interactive interface to seamlessly link them all together, at any time you choose, help is just seconds away, without any problems or delays.

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.