As you’ve arrived here it’s possible that either you want to get into networking and the MCSE has reared its head, or you’re already a professional and you know that your career is blocked until your get the Microsoft qualification.

As you find out about training companies, stay away from those who cut costs by not upgrading their courses to the current Microsoft version. Ultimately, this will end up costing the student much more as they will have been educated in an old version of MCSE which will require an up-date pretty much straight away.

Stay away from organisations who are only trying to make a sale. You deserve time, expertise and advice to ensure you’re registering on the correct course. Guard against being rushed into their standard course by an inadequate outfit.

You should look for an accredited exam preparation programme included in your course.

Because the majority of IT examining boards are American, you’ll need to be used to the correct phraseology. You can’t practice properly by merely understanding random questions – they have to be in the same format as the actual exams.

Obviously, it is vital to know that you’ve thoroughly prepared for the real exam prior to doing it. Going over mock-up tests helps build your confidence and saves you time and money on wasted exam attempts.

A ridiculously large number of organisations only concern themselves with gaining a certificate, and forget what it’s all actually about – getting yourself a new job or career. Always start with the end goal – don’t get hung-up on the training vehicle.

It’s a terrible situation, but the majority of trainees commence training that sounds wonderful in the sales literature, but which provides the end-result of a job that is of no interest at all. Speak to a selection of college leavers for a real eye-opener.

You need to keep your eye on what it is you’re trying to achieve, and formulate your training based on that – not the other way round. Keep on track and study for a job that will keep you happy for many years.

You’d also need help from a professional that knows the commercial realities of the industry you’re considering, and who can give you ‘A typical day in the life of’ synopsis for each job considered. All of these things are very important because you need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.

A number of trainees think that the traditional school, college or university track is still the most effective. So why are qualifications from the commercial sector beginning to overtake it?

As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, industry has moved to the specialised core-skills learning only available through the vendors themselves – for example companies such as CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA. This often comes in at a fraction of the cost and time.

They do this through focusing on the actual skills required (together with a proportionate degree of background knowledge,) instead of covering masses of the background ‘extras’ that degrees in computing often do – to pad out the syllabus.

Assuming a company knows what areas they need covered, then all they have to do is advertise for the exact skill-set required to meet that need. The syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and do not vary between trainers (as academic syllabuses often do).

A expert and practiced consultant (as opposed to a salesman) will want to thoroughly discuss your current experience level and abilities. This is useful for understanding your starting level of study.

With a bit of live experience or some accreditation, your starting-point of learning is not the same as someone new to the industry.

For those students beginning IT exams and training for the first time, you might like to avoid jumping in at the deep-end, starting with some basic PC skills training first. Usually this is packaged with most training packages.

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