Why a Training Course Does Not Cost $5

So you got yet another throw-away ad in the mail, offering computer or soft skills training. You riffle the ad casually, holding it precariously over the trash bin as you eye its contents. “Get more done in less time,” “Be more efficient,” “Unlock the potential of your computer and your mind” are some of the headlines that leap out at you.

Yeah yeah yeah. Sure, you’re thinking. Maybe you will get some of those benefits, maybe you won’t. But why does training have to be so darn expensive? It’s a fair question, and as the owner and operator of a training company, I think I have a unique perspective to offer you. Let’s take a look at just exactly where the money goes.

Hidden Costs

First of all, keep in mind that there is a lot of hidden cost to the trainer and training company. This comes in the form of a huge time commitment to learn software, keep up to date, and also to market themselves on an ongoing basis. This simply takes a lot of time.

Also, if the trainer comes to you, there is considerable effort he/she must make in driving, finding your business, setting up the training room before the course, etc. Time is money too.

Direct Costs

I haven’t even mentioned direct costs such as:

• Computers
• Software
• Books
• Certifications
• Equipment – laptops, overhead projectors, etc.

Even a small training company can have a lot of hidden overhead you don’t see when they show up, smiling on your doorstep.

The Actual Value of Training

Additionally, the skills the trainer imparts help you and your employees do their jobs. Essentially, the trainer is providing you with the tools to do your business at the highest level possible. Isn’t it important, and valuable, to you as a business owner and/or personnel manager to have your business run as smoothly and efficiently as possible? Isn’t maximizing profits important, and can’t computer and soft-skills training assist you in meeting these goals?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taught presidents, executives, managers, and many others high up in the organizational food chain. Folks who were making many times more than I was for the same hours–and yet I was training them how to be more efficient, how to be confident, and what to do to be successful. Do you see the dichotomy here?

Dangers of Hiring on Price

Hiring a training company based on price alone, as with any product or service, is usually a big mistake. There are a lot of hacks in the computer and soft-skills training business who are willing to work for peanuts. Peanuts are for elephants, and not for high-caliber people.

How much does losing a whole day to poor training cost you in the long run? The simple maxim generally shows itself to be true: you do get what you pay for.

You Can’t Buy Excellence

This may sound like a funny heading, but it’s true. While you can always pay more for a product or service, in the end, excellence is a matter of personal integrity and commitment, and you can’t just buy it. You have to find it, and often it does come at a price–deservedly so. I’m certain you would not complain about your own professional rates; no doubt you are worth every penny of your asking price.

Ultimately, high-level people such as you do not spend hours and hours for free; they know what their time is worth, and they ask for what the market will bear as fair return for their efforts. Finding people who demand excellence from themselves, and in turn share it with you, is a valuable commodity worth voting for with your training dollars.

Conclusion

We’ve explored some of the hidden and direct costs of computer training, and discussed why high quality training commands a price. After all, the people you hire will be teaching you and your employees how to better do your jobs. Isn’t increased efficiency, confidence, and competence valuable in helping your business be stronger and more competitive? What is that worth to you? In the end, you must decide.

Get your first IT position

The good news is that there are always plenty of opportunities out there for newcomers to the I.T. field even in bad economic times. The bad news is that newcomers to the market are up against a lot of competition – at one end you have wave after wave of new graduates and job seekers hitting the market every year and at the other end you have high-end I.T workers increasingly being asked to bring more skills to the table for the same pay – which has a tendency to force down lesser skilled I.T. workers toward lower paid/skilled jobs.

So how can you break that ‘inexperience’ cycle, particularly when economic times are tough and the economy is not doing so great? Well, while there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for everybody, there are some general hints and tips that anyone looking to break into I.T. should keep in mind.

Firstly, you need to realistically check your expectations. Be cautious of the career claims made by training institutions and certification vendors. They want you to take their courses and sign up for their certifications and so they spend large amounts of money on slick advertising and promises of high-paid careers. Know one thing – if you’re new to the world of I.T. you’re not going to complete a few weeks or months of classroom training and then walk into a high-paid I.T. job, no matter what the advertisements say.

Secondly, you need to be flexible in your approach and the types of jobs you’d be willing to take in order to get to your ultimate job. A help-desk role may not seem like the ideal stepping stone for a would-be programmer, but it sure helps to fill out some of the gaps on the C.V. and could be good from a networking point of view. Likewise, a clerical job might seem worlds away from your ideal I.T. position, but there might be numerous ways in which to use, and demonstrate, your I.T. skills in such a role which may then lead to something more to your liking. Think of it as short-term steps to reach long-term goals.

With that mindset you then need to study carefully the job market and identify the types of jobs that might be within your reach – both I.T. and non-I.T. Even if you have a particular I.T. career path in mind (e.g. Linux administrator) you should consider all types of entry-level I.T. jobs (even if I.T. only makes up a part of the overall job description) as it will help you get a foot in the door. It’s much easier to get a job when you already have one and it it’s much easier to change tracks within the I.T. industry than to break into I.T. in the first place.

If you decide that you want to enhance your C.V. with a certification or two bear one thing in mind – a certification alone will not land you your first I.T. job. Those days, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. Most employers are wary of ‘paper’ certified individuals and for good reason. What a certification can do for you however is to help your C.V. stand apart from the crowd and show that you have a willingness to learn and take responsibility for your future.

Should You Recycle or Dispose of Your Computer?

Author: Robert Bell

Should You Recycle or Dispose of Your Computer?

When you dispose of your computer such as putting it out with the trash you contribute to the growing amount of e-waste in landfills. Computers are the biggest part of e-waste. Another problem with that is that toxins and carcinogens can get into the ground water and soil.

In 2007 about 500 million computers became obsolete just in the United States. That�s a lot of e-waste. Millions more became obsolete in other countries. When the owners decide to get new computers the majority of them won�t be recycled or reused.

There reusable materials in a computer that are lost when you dispose of your computer.
More energy is used to make new computers and more raw materials, less the materials that are recycled. Mining operations that dig the metals used in a new computer ravage the earth, destroying more forest area and that alone is a source of polluting the soil and water.

A lot of the mining done these days is mountain top removal mining. This destroys the tops of mountains in places like West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The beautiful view and hiking land is ruined. Many streams are covered over too. There water sources and fishing areas are gone.

Recycling uses less energy than making new products and it usually makes less air and water pollution. It also saves landfill space. Recycling also saves money and creates new jobs. It creates more jobs than landfills or incinerators and limits pollution from incinerators. It also limits pollution from incinerators, and is a less expensive way for your city to manage waste.

Recycling just the plastic from your computer can save a good bit of landfill space because about 7% of the waste in a landfill is plastic, tough other plastic products contribute too, and your computer is mostly plastic. One billion pounds of plastic from electronics goes to a landfill each year. Reversely, park benches and fencing at the Honolulu Zoo were made from recycled plastic.

Recycling also prevents global warming. Recycling of waste products prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent in 2000. Remember that disposed of computers are sometimes incinerated.

Recycling protects the habitats of wildlife. Whereas, disposing of your computer contributes to destroying forests, rivers and wetlands that wildlife relies on for life.

These are growing problems in developed countries that can be stopped with recycling. You can send or take your old computer to different types of recyclers. Businesses can be fined for illegally disposing of hazardous waste and they have to pay court costs.
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10 Steps to IT Certification

Author: Hugh Nguyen

Skilled network professionals are not going to be losing many jobs, no matter what happens to employment figures or prospects in other areas of the economy, and new IT jobs will always be available to properly educated, trained and prepared individuals. Notice the three different words there. Even after getting a degree (education), someone who wants to work in this area of continuing high demand needs the proper, current certifications (training). Before you begin accruing the various Cisco, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and other certifications, you need to pass the exams, which is where the third concept, preparation, enters the picture.

Whichever expertise you seek to hone or add with any particular certification, you must enter the process with a serious commitment. There will be a considerable investment of time, energy and money if your goal is a quality certification that represents you as a leader in your field. There is a lot more to it than learning how to take a test, and there may be any number of between-the-lines sidesteps and detours on your journey, but the following 10 steps to IT certification should get you pointed in the right direction.

Step 1: A specialty means you’re focused.

 The old terms “engineer” and “programmer” do not say much about what a person does anymore. Today, even within Information Technology (IT) in general and network technology in particular, there are numerous areas of concentration. You can specialize in the core routing and switching components of networks, focus on network security issues like firewalls and hacker detection/prevention, and/or obtain certifications for dealing with telephony technologies. There are numerous certifications from which to choose and you will obviously do best in the areas you find most interesting and personally rewarding. After you get your first certification you may decide to work toward others, but consider focusing on a single area as your “specialty.”

Step 2: An investment means you’re serious

Don’t short-change yourself if you make the decision in #1 above to get going on a particular certification, whether or not you have a plan to accrue more than the first one. One or 20, a certification requires a serious investment of time, energy and funds. Do your due diligence before you spend money on study materials, by talking to colleagues, reading book reviews on Amazon.com and checking the websites of the companies whose certifications you want to earn (Microsoft, Cisco and the others). User forums on the Internet, specifically dealing with the area of study, are another good source for information on the best study aids.

 Step 3: Question authority

Do not be intimidated by people who tell you they are gurus or experts in “networks” or “networking” (which could mean they do a lot of Face book postings, among other things). There really aren’t any IT gurus. The science is changing and advancing so quickly, and there is so much going on in so many areas, that just about any subject matter you picked to become “an expert” in would be obsolete before you finished your studies. The depth and breadth of network technology can positively overwhelm newbies and veterans alike. Just remember that you are not being certified as a “know-it-all,” but as having expertise in a particular area, expertise that you must work at maintaining. Whether it’s wireless, security or telephony, get grounded in that first, specialized IT area, then decide what you wish to add to your skill set. This will come naturally as you progress in your career.

Step 4: Be an Aristotelian (balanced)

 If you are not careful, you can easily “bury yourself” under mountains of homework, practice tests, study materials and books. This is especially easy to do if you are trying to knock off a certification exam in an insufficient amount of time. You should certainly spend the time that is required to prepare well for your certification exam, but it is crucial to make enough time for the rest of your life, too. Take regular breaks, and also “break away” from computers, manuals and books for at least a few hours daily. Not only will you reduce the chance of burnout, you will give yourself the necessary time to digest what you have studied. This is an important step in changing what you studied into what you “learned.”

Step 5: Forget the Cliff’s Notes

 Whether you opt for a “bootcamp” approach or a classic lecture-and-notes program, don’t fool yourself into thinking there is any shortcut one way or the other. If you have on-the-job experience and are not a newcomer to the field, then a condensed or accelerated program that rapidly covers the technical material can prepare you for exams without wasting unnecessary time. This may not be the best way for many newcomers, however, who would doubtless report that the longer-term study was certainly not “wasted time.”

 Step 6: Create your study plan

 You have to make a plan for when, where and how you are going to read, study and review your materials. Develop a schedule and follow it. If you had a method that worked well in school, by all means implement it. Do not study with the TV on, music playing, cell phones ringing or other distractions. One hour of quality, quiet study time is worth up to three hours of noise- and interruption-filled study. Two hours per day is a good minimum, but maintain your balance (see #4 above) whatever your plan.

 Step 7: Assemble your study guide

 Once you identify the information or areas that are the most challenging for you, compile a list of terms, questions, details and reminders as you progress through your studies (and your study materials). In this study guide, put things into logical sections so that related information is kept together for quicker reference. Be thorough but succinct, using no more words than are necessary. Keep your study guide even after the exam, since information covered in one exam is quite likely to reappear on the next one(s) you take.

 Step 8: Study for the long term, not for the test

You must remind yourself that you are not studying simply to pass a test. You are studying to acquire and demonstrate expertise. The main place you will demonstrate that in the future, of course, is on the job. This is the goal, being a professional on the job. You will retain information better when you have a clear idea in your mind of what it is for. Memory studies clearly show that the more compelling the “narrative” or story in our minds concerning information we are processing, the more vividly it will be remembered.

Step 9: First things first

 No matter what rationale you come up with, it is simply not a good idea to study for multiple exams simultaneously. Changing focus from one topic to a completely different one will interfere with your concentration on and retention of the material. No matter how high your IQ or how many exams you think you can study for (and take) at once, do yourself a favour and take one step at a time.

Step 10: Take the exam with confidence

The day of the exam, arrive early and spend an hour or so reviewing your study guide. Take all the good advice there is on calming down, focusing and doing your best on tests. There is plenty of material for you to review on that subject, so for now just remember that, if you studied properly, you will pass. In fact, don’t even worry about whether you will pass or fail, just focus on doing your best
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CompTIA A Plus Careers Training 2009

By Jason Kendall

CompTIA A+ consists of 4 training sections; you’re considered A+ competent when you’ve achieved certifications for half of them. This is why the majority of training establishments only teach 2 specialised areas. The truth is you’re advised to have the teaching in all areas as a lot of employment will demand an understanding of all four areas. Don’t feel pressured to complete all 4 certifications, although it would seem prudent that you study for all four areas.

A+ certification without additional courses will give you the ability to mend and maintain stand alone Macs, computers and laptops; ones that are generally not connected to a network – which means the home or small business market. If you aspire to taking care of computer networks, you’ll need to add CompTIA Network+ to your training package. This will enable you to get a higher paid position. Also look at the route to networking via Microsoft, in the form of MCP’s, MCSA or the full MCSE.

At times folks don’t catch on to what information technology is about. It is electrifying, revolutionary, and puts you at the fore-front of developments in technology affecting everyones lives in the 21st century. Technological changes and dialogue via the internet is going to spectacularly shape our lifestyles in the near future; to a vast degree.

And keep in mind that on average, the income of a person in the IT market in the United Kingdom is much more than in other market sectors, so you will be in a good position to gain a lot more as a trained IT professional, than you’d expect to earn elsewhere. The need for professionally qualified and skilled IT workers is assured for quite some time to come, thanks to the constant expansion in IT dependency in commerce and the vast shortage still present.

How can we go about making an informed choice then? With so many opportunities, we’ll need to know where to dig – and exactly what to be investigating.
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