Sunday, January 17, 2010

Cisco Training In Your Own Home Considered

By Jason Kendall

If you're looking for training in Cisco, then a CCNA is most probably what you're looking for. The Cisco training is intended for individuals who wish to understand and work with routers and network switches. Routers connect computer networks to another collection of computer networks over dedicated lines or the internet.

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.

Getting your Cisco CCNA is perfectly sufficient to start with; don't be cajoled into attempting your CCNP. Once you've got a few years experience behind you, you will have a feel for whether you need to train up to this level. If so, your experience will serve as the background you require to take on your CCNP - which is quite a hard qualification to acquire - and mustn't be entered into casually.

A lot of training companies only provide basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); very few go late in the evening or at 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.

The market provides an excess of work available in IT. Picking the right one in this uncertainty is a mammoth decision.

After all, without any know-how of IT in the workplace, how could you possibly know what a particular IT employee spends their day doing? How can you possibly choose what certification program is the most likely for your success.

Consideration of several areas is vital if you want to expose the right answers:

* The type of personality you have and interests - which work-centred jobs you love or hate.

* What time-frame are you looking at for your training?

* How highly do you rate salary - is it the most important thing, or is job satisfaction higher up on your priority-list?

* Understanding what the main IT roles and markets are - and what makes them different.

* The level of commitment and effort you'll commit getting qualified.

When all is said and done, the only real way of understanding everything necessary is by means of a long chat with an experienced advisor that has enough background to give you the information required.

A lot of students presume that the traditional school, college or university path is the way they should go. Why then are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it?

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.

Essentially, only required knowledge is taught. It's not quite as straightforward as that, but principally the objective has to be to focus on the exact skills required (along with a certain amount of crucial background) - without trying to cram in every other area - in the way that academic establishments often do.

Just like the advert used to say: 'It does what it says on the label'. The company just needs to know where they have gaps, and then advertise for someone with the specific certification. Then they're assured that a potential employee can do exactly what's required.

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.

All the major commercial players like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA all have nationally recognised proficiency programmes. Huge conglomerates such as these will make your CV stand-out.

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