Considering Cisco CCNA Retraining Compared
If Cisco training is your aspiration, and you haven't worked with routers or switches, you should start with the CCNA training. This will give you the necessary skills to set up and maintain routers. Vast numbers of routers make up the internet, and large companies with several locations also utilise routers to keep their networks in touch.
Achieving this certification means you'll probably end up working for large commercial ventures that are spread out geographically, but need their computer networks to talk to each other. Other usual roles could be with an internet service provider. Both types of jobs command good salaries.
Achieving CCNA is where you should be aiming; don't let some salesperson talk you into starting with the CCNP. Once you've worked for a few years, you can decide whether you need to train up to this level. Should that be the case, your experience will serve as the background you need for the CCNP - which is quite a hard qualification to acquire - and shouldn't be looked upon as otherwise.
A competent and specialised consultant (in direct contrast to a salesman) will ask questions and seek to comprehend your current experience level and abilities. This is paramount to establishing your starting level of study. With a strong background, or maybe some commercial experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then it could be that the level you'll need to start at will vary from a trainee who has no experience. If you're a new trainee embarking on IT studies anew, it can be helpful to break yourself in gently, starting with user-skills and software training first. This is often offered with most training programs.
Most trainers will only offer support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; most won't answer after 8-9pm at the latest and frequently never at the weekends. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations that use call-centres 'out-of-hours' - where an advisor will call back during normal office hours. This is useless when you're stuck and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
Top training providers opt for an online 24x7 package pulling in several support offices across the globe. You will have an easy to use environment which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres irrespective of the time of day: Support when it's needed. You can't afford to accept anything less. Direct-access round-the-clock support is the only viable option with computer-based courses. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; but for the majority of us however, we're working at the time when most support is available.
Being a part of the cutting-edge of new technology is as thrilling as it comes. You become one of a team of people creating a future for us all. We're barely beginning to get a handle on how all this change will affect us. How we correlate with the world as a whole will be significantly affected by technology and the internet.
Let's not forget that income in IT throughout this country is considerably more than the national average salary, therefore you will probably receive significantly more as a trained IT professional, than you'd get in most other industries. It's no secret that there is a significant nationwide demand for trained and qualified IT technicians. And with the marketplace continuing to expand, it looks like this will be the case for a good while yet.
It's usual for students to get confused with one aspect of their training which is often not even considered: The breakdown of the course materials before being couriered to your address. Individual deliveries for each training module one piece at a time, according to your own speed is the typical way that your program will arrive. While seeming sensible, you should take these factors into account: What would their reaction be if you find it difficult to do each element at the required speed? And maybe you'll find their order of completion won't fit you as well as some other order of studying might.
Ideally, you want ALL the study materials up-front - meaning you'll have all of them to return to any point - whenever it suits you. This allows a variation in the order that you complete each objective if another more intuitive route presents itself.
Make sure that all your exams are current and commercially required - forget programs which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you'd printed it yourself). From a commercial standpoint, only the major heavyweights like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (for example) really carry any commercial clout. Anything less just won't hit the right spot.
Achieving this certification means you'll probably end up working for large commercial ventures that are spread out geographically, but need their computer networks to talk to each other. Other usual roles could be with an internet service provider. Both types of jobs command good salaries.
Achieving CCNA is where you should be aiming; don't let some salesperson talk you into starting with the CCNP. Once you've worked for a few years, you can decide whether you need to train up to this level. Should that be the case, your experience will serve as the background you need for the CCNP - which is quite a hard qualification to acquire - and shouldn't be looked upon as otherwise.
A competent and specialised consultant (in direct contrast to a salesman) will ask questions and seek to comprehend your current experience level and abilities. This is paramount to establishing your starting level of study. With a strong background, or maybe some commercial experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then it could be that the level you'll need to start at will vary from a trainee who has no experience. If you're a new trainee embarking on IT studies anew, it can be helpful to break yourself in gently, starting with user-skills and software training first. This is often offered with most training programs.
Most trainers will only offer support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; most won't answer after 8-9pm at the latest and frequently never at the weekends. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations that use call-centres 'out-of-hours' - where an advisor will call back during normal office hours. This is useless when you're stuck and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
Top training providers opt for an online 24x7 package pulling in several support offices across the globe. You will have an easy to use environment which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres irrespective of the time of day: Support when it's needed. You can't afford to accept anything less. Direct-access round-the-clock support is the only viable option with computer-based courses. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; but for the majority of us however, we're working at the time when most support is available.
Being a part of the cutting-edge of new technology is as thrilling as it comes. You become one of a team of people creating a future for us all. We're barely beginning to get a handle on how all this change will affect us. How we correlate with the world as a whole will be significantly affected by technology and the internet.
Let's not forget that income in IT throughout this country is considerably more than the national average salary, therefore you will probably receive significantly more as a trained IT professional, than you'd get in most other industries. It's no secret that there is a significant nationwide demand for trained and qualified IT technicians. And with the marketplace continuing to expand, it looks like this will be the case for a good while yet.
It's usual for students to get confused with one aspect of their training which is often not even considered: The breakdown of the course materials before being couriered to your address. Individual deliveries for each training module one piece at a time, according to your own speed is the typical way that your program will arrive. While seeming sensible, you should take these factors into account: What would their reaction be if you find it difficult to do each element at the required speed? And maybe you'll find their order of completion won't fit you as well as some other order of studying might.
Ideally, you want ALL the study materials up-front - meaning you'll have all of them to return to any point - whenever it suits you. This allows a variation in the order that you complete each objective if another more intuitive route presents itself.
Make sure that all your exams are current and commercially required - forget programs which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you'd printed it yourself). From a commercial standpoint, only the major heavyweights like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (for example) really carry any commercial clout. Anything less just won't hit the right spot.
About the Author:
(C) Jason Kendall. Go to LearningLolly.com for quality career tips on Cisco CCNA and Cisco Training.