Kick out a salesman that pushes one particular program without a thorough investigation to gain understanding of your current abilities and also your level of experience. Always check they have access to a generous product range so they can provide you with what's right for you. Remember, if in the past you've acquired any accreditation or direct-experience, then it's not unreasonable to expect to start at a different point than someone who is new to the field. If this is your first attempt at studying for an IT examination then you might also want to start with some basic PC skills training first.

Beware of putting too much emphasis, as many people do, on the training process. Training for training's sake is generally pointless; this is about gaining commercial employment. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. It's a sad testimony to the sales skills of many companies, but the majority of trainees begin programs that seem great in the syllabus guide, but which delivers a career that is of no interest. Talk to many college leavers and you'll see where we're coming from.

Never let your focus stray from where you want to get to, and formulate your training based on that - don't do it back-to-front. Stay on target and study for an end-result you'll enjoy for years to come. Have a conversation with an experienced industry advisor that has a commercial understanding of the realities faced in the industry, and could provide detailed descriptions of what tasks are going to make up a typical day for you. Researching these areas well before commencement of any study path has obvious benefits.

Some training providers have a handy Job Placement Assistance facility, to assist your search for your first position. It can happen though that there is more emphasis than is necessary on this service, as it's really not that difficult for any motivated and trained individual to secure a job in the IT industry - as employers are keen to find appropriately trained staff.

However, what is relevant is to have CV and Interview advice and support though; and we'd recommend all students to bring their CV up to date the day they start training - don't procrastinate and leave it till you've finished your exams. It can happen that you haven't even qualified when you will get your initial junior support job; yet this can't and won't happen unless your CV is with employers. If you'd like to get employment in your home town, then you'll often find that a local IT focused recruitment consultancy could be more appropriate than the trainer's recruitment division, because they're far more likely to be familiar with the jobs that are going locally.

Various people, it seems, spend evenings and weekends on their training and studies (sometimes for years), only to do nothing special when finding the right position. Sell yourself... Do everything you can to put yourself out there. Don't think a job's just going to jump out in front of you.

If Professional IT employment is your ultimate objective, you could start with instruction in IT Support work. The Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) is an effective qualification if you're looking to offer technical help for commercial users. You'd generally be looking at about a hundred hours of studying at this level.

After this, we enter the area of full professional IT accreditation. To obtain a position working in hardware-support or network support you must consider taking 'A+' & Network+ accreditations from 'CompTIA'. Training courses will cover hard-ware and network installations at a basic level, plus elements of security, support & administration. A training course that teaches both of them ought to take close to 200 to 250 hrs to finish. This suggests that someone studying part time alongside another job could feasibly be at the accreditation stage in six months' time.

Only consider study paths that'll grow into commercially accepted qualifications. There are far too many trainers offering 'in-house' certificates which will prove unusable in today's commercial market. If the accreditation doesn't feature a conglomerate such as Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA, then you'll probably find it will have been a waste of time - because it won't give an employer any directly-useable skills.

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