Sunday, January 17, 2010

Cisco Training In Your Own Home Considered

By Jason Kendall

If Cisco training is your aspiration, and you've not yet worked with routers or network switches, you should first attempt CCNA certification. This will provide you with knowledge and skills to work with routers. The internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers, and large commercial ventures with many locations also need routers to allow their networks to keep in touch.

The kind of jobs requiring this knowledge mean the chances are you'll work for national or international companies that are spread out geographically but need their computer networks to talk to each other. Or, you may move on to joining an internet service provider. Both types of jobs command good salaries.

You should get a bespoke training program that will take you through a specific training path to make sure you have the correct skill set and knowledge prior to getting going with Cisco.

One thing you must always insist on is 24x7 round-the-clock support with trained professional instructors and mentors. Too many companies only seem to want to help while they're in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends.

Never buy certification programs which can only support trainees through a message system after 6-9pm in the evening and during weekends. Trainers will give you every excuse in the book why you don't need this. The bottom line is - support is required when it's required - not when it's convenient for them.

The very best programs opt for a web-based round-the-clock system utilising a variety of support centres over many time-zones. You will have an environment which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres any time of the day or night: Support when it's needed.

Always choose a training company that gives this level of learning support. As only round-the-clock 24x7 support gives you the confidence to make it.

Beginning with the idea that it makes sense to home-in on the employment that excites us first, before we can even mull over which development program fulfils our needs, how can we choose the right direction?

Because without any solid background in computing, how should we possibly understand what someone in a particular job does?

To get through to the essence of this, we need to discuss a variety of definitive areas:

* The sort of individual you are - what kind of jobs you enjoy, and on the other side of the coin - what don't you like doing.

* Do you want to get certified due to a specific motive - for instance, is it your goal to work at home (maybe self-employment?)?

* What priority do you place on salary vs the travel required?

* Because there are so many different sectors to gain certifications for in the IT industry - you will have to gain a basic understanding of what separates them.

* Taking a cold, hard look at the level of commitment, time and effort you can give.

For the average person, getting to the bottom of these areas requires a good chat with someone that knows what they're talking about. And we don't just mean the certifications - you also need to understand the commercial needs and expectations besides.

Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the traditional academic paths into IT - but why is this?

The IT sector is now aware that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, official accreditation from the likes of CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA is far more effective and specialised - for much less time and money.

Of course, an appropriate quantity of relevant additional information has to be covered, but focused specialised knowledge in the required areas gives a commercially trained person a distinct advantage.

In simple terms: Authorised IT qualifications give employers exactly what they're looking for - the title is a complete giveaway: i.e. I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Designing Security for a Windows 2003 Network'. Therefore employers can identify just what their needs are and what certifications are required to perform the job.

Be alert that all exams you're studying for are recognised by industry and are up-to-date. Training companies own certificates are not normally useful in gaining employment.

Only nationally recognised certification from the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA and Adobe will be useful to a future employer.

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