Selecting The Right MCSE Course – Insights
If you’re reading this it’s possible that either you’re considering a career change into IT and you’ve heard good things about MCSE’s, or you’re currently an IT professional and you’re aware that you need the MCSE accreditation.
When looking into computer training companies, don’t use any that cut costs by failing to up-grade to the most up-to-date Microsoft version. Over time, this will end up costing the student a lot more as they will have been educated in an old version of MCSE which inevitably will have to be up-dated very quickly.
Training colleges must be devoted to offering the correct route for their clients. Educational direction is as much concerned with guiding people on establishing which direction to go in, as it is giving them help to reach their destination.
Frequently, a typical IT hopeful really has no clue in what direction to head in a computing career, let alone which sector they should be considering getting trained in.
Consequently, without any experience in the IT market, how could you possibly know what someone in a particular field spends their day doing? And of course decide on which accreditation path is the most likely for your success.
Reflection on these different issues is vital when you want to uncover the right solution that will work for you:
* Our personalities play a starring part – what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the areas that really turn you off.
* What length of time can you allocate for the retraining?
* What are your thoughts on job satisfaction vs salary?
* Always think in-depth about the work needed to get fully certified.
* The time and energy you’ll set aside for the training program.
In actuality, you’ll find the only real way to investigate these issues will be via a meeting with an experienced advisor who has a background in IT (as well as the commercial needs.)
A sneaky way that course providers make extra profits is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. It looks impressive, but is it really:
Everyone knows they’re still paying for it – it’s obviously been inserted into the overall price charged by the course provider. Certainly, it’s not a freebie (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!)
For those who want to pass in one, then you should avoid exam guarantees and pay when entering exams, prioritise it appropriately and be ready for the task.
Why pay a training course provider early for exams? Hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the time, instead of paying any mark-up – and take it closer to home – not at somewhere of their bidding.
Why borrow the money or pay in advance (plus interest of course) on exams when you don’t need to? A lot of profit is made because training colleges are getting money in early for exam fees – and then cashing in when they’re not all taken.
Pay heed to the fact that, with ‘Exam Guarantees’ from most places – the company decides when you can do your re-takes. You will have to demonstrate an excellent pass-rate before they’ll approve a re-take.
Shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is short-sighted – when hard work, commitment and the right preparation via exam simulations is actually the key to your success.
At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be proper direct-access 24×7 support via trained professional instructors and mentors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend.
Be wary of any training providers who use messaging services ‘out-of-hours’ – where an advisor will call back during standard office hours. It’s no use when you’re stuck on a problem and need an answer now.
World-class organisations provide an online 24×7 system involving many support centres over many time-zones. You get a single, easy-to-use interface that switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres any time of the day or night: Support when it’s needed.
If you accept anything less than direct-access round-the-clock support, you’ll very quickly realise that you’ve made a mistake. You may avoid using the support late in the night, but consider weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.
Let’s admit it: There really is pretty much no personal job security available anymore; there can only be market or sector security – as any company can remove anyone when it suits the business’ commercial requirements.
Whereas a fast growing sector, where there just aren’t enough staff to go round (as there is an enormous shortfall of trained staff), opens the possibility of true job security.
Reviewing the computer market, the recent e-Skills survey demonstrated a more than 26 percent skills deficit. So, for every 4 jobs existing around computing, employers can only find certified professionals for 3 of the 4.
Gaining full commercial IT exams is as a result a quick route to realise a life-long as well as pleasing career.
It would be hard to imagine if a better time or market conditions will exist for getting certified in this rapidly increasing and budding industry.
One area often overlooked by new students weighing up a particular programme is ‘training segmentation’. This basically means the way the course is divided up for timed release to you, which completely controls where you end up.
A release of your materials one piece at a time, as you complete each module is how things will normally arrive. Of course, this sounds sensible, but you must understand the following:
What if you find the order offered by the provider doesn’t suit. It may be difficult to get through all the elements inside their defined time-scales?
For maximum flexibility and safety, it’s not unusual for students to make sure that every element of their training is delivered immediately, and not in stages. It’s then up to you at what speed and in which order you’d like to work.
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