Should you be aspiring to become Cisco accredited, and you haven't worked with routers or network switches, we'd recommend taking a CCNA course. This educates you in the knowledge you need to understand routers. The internet is constructed from huge numbers of routers, and national or international corporations with multiple departments and sites also use them to keep their networks in touch.

Jobs that use this type of qualification mean you'll most probably work for national or international companies that have various different locations but need their computer networks to talk to each other. On the other hand, you might end up being employed by an internet service provider. Both types of jobs command good salaries.

Having the right skills and knowledge ahead of commencing your Cisco training is crucial. Therefore, discuss the requirements expected of you with someone who will be able to help you.

There are an excess of employment in the IT industry. Finding the particular one for yourself often proves challenging. How likely is it for us to understand what is involved in a particular job when it's an alien environment to us? Often we don't even know anybody who performs the role either. To get through to the essence of this, we need to discuss a number of different aspects:

* What hobbies you have and enjoy - often these reveal the areas will give you the most reward.

* Are you looking to realise a specific aspiration - for example, working for yourself sometime soon?

* What scale of importance is the salary - is it of prime importance, or is job satisfaction further up on your list of priorities?

* Learning what typical work roles and sectors are - plus how they're different to each other.

* The level of commitment and effort you will set aside for your training.

The best way to avoid the industry jargon, and reveal the best path to success, have an in-depth discussion with an advisor with years of experience; an individual who can impart the commercial reality and of course each qualification.

Please understand this most important point: It's essential to obtain proper 24x7 round-the-clock instructor support. Later, you'll kick yourself if you don't. Many only provide email support (too slow), and phone support is usually just a call-centre that will make some notes and then email an advisor - who will call back over the next day or so (assuming you're there), at a time suitable for them. This is all next to useless if you're sitting there confused over an issue and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.

We recommend that you search for training schools that utilise many support facilities active in different time-zones. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface and round-the-clock access, when you want it, without any problems. Always choose a company that cares. Only proper 24x7 round-the-clock live support provides the necessary backup.

We're regularly asked to explain why traditional degrees are less in demand than the more commercial certificates? Accreditation-based training (to use industry-speak) is more effective in the commercial field. The IT sector is aware that such specialised knowledge is vital to service the demands of an acceleratingly technical commercial environment. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the dominant players. In a nutshell, only that which is required is learned. It's not quite as straightforward as that, but the principle objective is to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (alongside some required background) - without trying to cram in everything else (as degree courses are known to do).

Think about if you were the employer - and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. Which is the most straightforward: Go through a mass of different academic qualifications from hopeful applicants, asking for course details and what vocational skills they have, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that perfectly fit your needs, and then choose your interviewees based around that. The interview is then more about the person and how they'll fit in - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

One fatal mistake that we encounter all too often is to choose a career based on a course, and not focus on the desired end-result. Schools are stacked to the hilt with direction-less students who took a course because it seemed fun - in place of something that could gain them the job they want. Never let yourself become part of that group who set off on a track that sounds really 'interesting' and 'fun' - and get to the final hurdle of an accreditation for something they'll never enjoy.

Stay focused on where you want to get to, and formulate your training based on that - don't do it back-to-front. Stay focused on the end-goal and ensure that you're training for something you'll still be enjoying many years from now. The best advice for students is to talk with an experienced industry advisor before deciding on their retraining course. This gives some measure of assurance that it contains the commercially required skills for the career that is sought.

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