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.
Before you make decisions on any career courses, discuss your thoughts with an industry expert who can help you sort out which area will be right for you. Someone who can get to know your personality, and find out what types of work suit you:
* Is having company at work important to you? Are you better with new people or those you know well? Or you may prefer task-orientated work that you can complete alone?
* Do you have a preference which market sector you would be suited to? (In this economy, it’s essential to choose well.)
* Would you like this to be the last time you’ll have to retrain?
* 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.
Finding your first job in the industry is often made easier with a Job Placement Assistance program. At the end of the day it isn’t so complicated as you might think to land a job - as long as you’re correctly trained and certified; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.
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!
It’s not uncommon to find that junior support roles are offered to people who are in the process of training and haven’t even passed a single exam yet. This will at least get you into the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s - rather than the ‘No’ pile.
If you don’t want to travel too far to work, then you’ll often find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy may serve you better than the trainer’s recruitment division, for they’re going to be familiar with local employment 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.
A ridiculously large number of organisations only concern themselves with gaining a certificate, and forget what it’s all actually about - which is a commercial career or job. You should always begin with the final destination in mind - don’t get hung-up on the training vehicle.
Don’t let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses who select a program that seems ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’ - and end up with a plaque on the wall for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.
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.
Take guidance from an experienced professional, even if you have to pay - it’s usually much cheaper and safer to find out at the start if you’ve chosen correctly, instead of discovering following two years of study that you aren’t going to enjoy the job you’ve chosen and now need to go back to square one.
In most cases, your normal person has no idea in what direction to head in a computing career, let alone which market they should be considering getting trained in.
How can we possibly grasp the tasks faced daily in an IT career if we’ve never been there? Often we have never met anyone who performs the role either.
Consideration of the following issues is most definitely required when you want to reveal the right answers:
* The sort of individual you reckon you are - what kind of jobs you find interesting, plus of course - what makes you unhappy.
* Are you driven to re-train for a specific motive - i.e. do you aim to work from home (maybe self-employment?)?
* How highly do you rate salary - is it of prime importance, or do you place job satisfaction a little higher on the scale of your priorities?
* Often, trainees don’t consider the work involved to gain all the necessary accreditation.
* The time and energy you’ll commit your 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.
Watch out that all accreditations you’re considering doing will be commercially viable and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment.
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. Browse LearningLolly.com for great advice on IT Jobs Growth and Comptia Training News.
