Cisco CCNA Career Retraining – Get It Right First Time 2009
March 17, 2009 by Jason Kendall
Filed under Online Colleges
If you think Cisco training might be for you, but you’ve not yet worked with routers or switches, it’s likely you’ll need the CCNA training. This will provide you with knowledge and skills to work with routers. The internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers, and big organisations with several locations also utilise routers to connect their computer networks.
As routers are connected to networks, it’s essential to know how networks function, or you will have difficulties with the qualification and not be able to follow the work. Find a training programme that covers networking fundamentals (CompTIA is ideal) prior to starting your CCNA.
Get on a tailored route that will systematically go through everything to make sure you’ve got the appropriate skills and knowledge prior to starting your training in Cisco skills.
Finding job security these days is incredibly rare. Companies can drop us from the workforce with very little notice – whenever it suits. We can however locate security at the market sector level, by searching for areas that have high demand, tied with a shortage of skilled staff.
Investigating the computer industry, a key e-Skills survey showed a more than 26 percent shortage in trained professionals. Basically, we’re only able to fill 3 out of 4 positions in the computer industry. Appropriately taught and commercially educated new workers are correspondingly at a resounding premium, and it looks like they will be for a long time to come. In actuality, gaining new qualifications in IT over the years to come is almost definitely the finest choice of careers you could make.
So, which are the questions we need to be posing so as to get the understanding we need? Because it’s evident there are many somewhat incomparable possibilities for us all to look at.
Potential trainees hoping to get an Information Technology career usually have no idea of what route to consider, let alone what sector to get certified in. Scanning a list of IT job-titles is a complete waste of time. The vast majority of us don’t even know what the neighbours do for a living – let alone understand the ins and outs of a particular IT career. Ultimately, any kind of right choice can only grow through a meticulous examination of several changing areas:
* The kind of individual you are – what kind of jobs you really enjoy, and conversely – what you definitely don’t enjoy.
* Why it seems right starting in the IT industry – is it to conquer a life-long goal like self-employment maybe.
* How highly do you rate salary – is an increase your main motivator, or is enjoying your job a lot higher on your list of priorities?
* Always think in-depth about the amount of work needed to get fully certified.
* You need to appreciate the differences between all the training areas.
Ultimately, your only chance of investigating all this is by means of a meeting with an experienced advisor that knows the industry well enough to lead you to the correct decision.
Many trainers provide a big box of books. This isn’t very interesting and not really conducive to remembering. Long-term memory is enhanced with an involvement of all our senses – educational experts have expounded on this for years now.
The latest audio-visual interactive programs utilising video demo’s and practice lab’s will forever turn you away from traditional book study. And they’re far more fun. It makes sense to see examples of the courseware provided before you hand over your cheque. Always insist on video tutorials, instructor demo’s and interactive modules with audio-visual elements.
Often, companies will only use purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, think what will happen if you lose your internet access or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. A safer solution is the provision of CD and DVD ROM materials that removes the issue entirely.
The way a programme is physically sent to you can often be overlooked. How is the courseware broken down? And in what sequence and at what speed is it delivered? Drop-shipping your training elements piece by piece, according to your own speed is the normal way of receiving your courseware. Of course, this sounds sensible, but you must understand the following: With thought, many trainees understand that their training company’s typical path to completion isn’t the easiest way for them. They might find it’s more expedient to use an alternative order of study. And what happens if they don’t finish at the pace they expect?
For future safety and flexibility, many trainees now want to make sure that every element of their training is posted to them in one go, with nothing held back. It’s then up to you how fast or slow and in what order you’d like to take your exams.
It’s so important to understand this key point: You absolutely must have proper 24×7 professional support from mentors and instructors. We can tell you that you’ll strongly regret it if you let this one slide. Beware of institutions which use ‘out-of-hours’ messaging systems – with the call-back coming in during normal office hours. It’s not a lot of help when you’ve got study issues and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
The very best training providers have many support offices across multiple time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to provide a seamless experience, at any time you choose, help is just seconds away, without any problems or delays. If you opt for less than direct-access 24×7 support, you’ll regret it. You might not want to use the service late at night, but you may need weekends, early mornings or late evenings.
A subtle way that colleges make extra profits is via an ‘exam inclusive’ package then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. This sounds impressive, until you think it through:
Obviously it’s not free – you’re still paying for it – it’s just been included in your package price. Students who go in for their examinations when it’s appropriate, funding them as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They are thoughtful of their spending and revise more thoroughly to make sure they’re ready.
Find the best exam deal or offer available at the appropriate time, and avoid college mark-up fees. You also get more choice of where you take your exam – so you can choose somewhere closer to home. Why borrow the money or pay in advance (plus interest of course) on exam fees when you didn’t need to? A lot of profit is made by companies getting money in early for exam fees – and then hoping that you won’t take them all. Also, ‘Exam Guarantees’ often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Most companies won’t pay for you to re-take until you’re able to demonstrate an excellent mock pass rate.
VUE and Prometric examinations are currently clocking in at an average of 112 pounds in this country. What’s the point of paying huge ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
Consider only study courses which will lead to commercially approved accreditations. There’s a plethora of minor schools promoting ‘in-house’ certificates which will prove unusable in today’s commercial market. Unless your qualification is issued by a major player like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA, then chances are it could have been a waste of time and effort – because no-one will recognise it.
Very informative and useful post. Thanks for posting.