The Cisco training is intended for individuals who wish to work with routers and switches. Routers hook up computer networks over the internet or dedicated lines. We’d recommend that you should start with the CCNA. It’s not advisable to launch directly into your CCNP for it’s full of complexities – and you need to work up to it to have a go at this.

Routers are linked to networks, therefore it is necessary to have an understanding of the operation of networks, or you’ll struggle with the program and not be able to understand the work. Seek out a program that teaches the basics (for example CompTIA) before you start the CCNA.

Achieving CCNA is where you need to be aiming – don’t be pushed into attempting your CCNP for now. After gaining experience in the working environment, you’ll know if it’s relevant for you to have this next level up. If it is, you’ll have significantly improved your chances of success – because you’ll know so much more by then.

Watch out that all qualifications you’re considering doing will be commercially viable and are bang up to date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are often meaningless.

Only properly recognised qualifications from the top companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco and CompTIA will have any meaning to employers.

Students hoping to begin a career in computers and technology normally aren’t sure what direction they should take, let alone which sector to obtain accreditation for.

What is our likelihood of grasping the many facets of a particular career when we’ve never done it? Maybe we have never met anyone who performs the role either.

Usually, the way to come at this dilemma properly flows from a full chat, covering a variety of topics:

* Personality plays an important role – what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the activities that really turn you off.

* Do you want to obtain training due to a precise raison d’etre – i.e. are you looking at working from home (self-employment?)?

* The income requirements that guide you?

* Getting to grips with what the normal work types and sectors are – plus how they’re different to each other.

* Taking a serious look at the level of commitment, time and effort that you’re going to put into it.

In actuality, you’ll find the only real way to research these matters tends to be through a good talk with an experienced advisor that has years of experience in the IT industry (and specifically it’s commercial needs.)

If your advisor doesn’t ask many questions – it’s likely they’re just trying to sell you something. If they push a particular product before learning about your history and current experience level, then you know it’s true.

With some real-world experience or qualifications, you could discover that your appropriate starting-point is not the same as someone new to the industry.

Consider starting with user-skills and software training first. It will usually make the slope up to the higher-levels a less steep.

A sneaky way that training providers make more money is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams. This sounds impressive, but is it really:

Certainly it’s not free – you’re still being charged for it – the price has simply been included in the whole thing.

If it’s important to you to get a first time pass, you must fund each exam as you take it, prioritise it appropriately and apply yourself as required.

Why should you pay the college early for examinations? Find the best deal you can at the appropriate time, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance – and take it closer to home – rather than in some remote place.

Paying in advance for examination fees (which also includes interest if you’ve taken out a loan) is bad financial management. Why fill a company’s coffers with extra money of yours simply to help their cash-flow! There are those who hope that you won’t get round to taking them – so they get to keep the extra funds.

In addition to this, ‘Exam Guarantees’ often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. The majority of organisations won’t pay for you to re-take until you’ve completely satisfied them that you’re ready this time.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric tests costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, the most cost-effective way to cover the cost is by paying when you need them. There’s no sense in throwing away maybe a thousand pounds extra at the start of your studies. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

Written by Scott Edwards. Browse around New Career Options or CLICK HERE.

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