Sunday, January 17, 2010

Cisco Training Courses Revealed

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.

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.

Proper support is incredibly important - ensure you track down something that provides 24x7 direct access, as anything less will not satisfy and will also impede your ability to learn.

Beware of institutions who use call-centres 'out-of-hours' - with the call-back coming in during office hours. It's no use when you're stuck on a problem and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.

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.

Considering the amount of options that are available, there's no surprise that nearly all newcomers to the industry get stuck choosing the job they will follow.

Perusing a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is no use whatsoever. The vast majority of us have no concept what our own family members do for a living - let alone understand the subtleties of any specific IT role.

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

* 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.

* 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?

* 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.

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?

As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, the IT sector has moved to the specialised core-skills learning only available through the vendors themselves - in other words companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. This frequently provides reductions in both cost and time.

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.

What if you were an employer - and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What is easier: Trawl through loads of academic qualifications from several applicants, trying to establish what they know and which vocational skills they've acquired, or choose particular accreditations that specifically match what you're looking for, and make your short-list from that. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

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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