Beware of putting too much emphasis, as can often be the case, on the training process. You're not training for the sake of training; you're training to become commercially employable. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. Don't let yourself become part of the group who select a program which looks like it could be fun - and end up with a plaque on the wall for an unrewarding career path.

It's a good idea to understand the exact expectations industry will have. What qualifications you'll be required to have and how to gain experience. It's definitely worth spending time thinking about how far you wish to progress your career as it may force you to choose a particular set of exams. You'd also need help from an experienced person that knows the commercial realities of the market you've chosen, and who can offer 'A typical day in the life of' synopsis for that career-path. All of these things are of paramount importance because you obviously have to know if you're barking up the wrong tree.

One area often overlooked by trainees weighing up a particular programme is that of 'training segmentation'. This basically means the breakdown of the materials to be delivered to you, which vastly changes what you end up with. Many companies enrol you into a 2 or 3 year study programme, and deliver each piece one-by-one as you get to the end of each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable - until you consider the following: What would happen if you didn't finish all the exams at the required speed? Sometimes their preference of study order won't be as easy as an alternative path could be.

The very best situation would see you getting every piece of your study pack couriered to you right at the start; the entire thing! Then, nothing can hinder your progress.

Programmers implementing systems use languages such as C. The 'C' of today is a low level easy to use 'language' that scarcely resembles the original release. Applications-programmers work in a number of different higher-level languages, - there are far too many to list all of them, but they will each have their own set of instructions and rules - and may well suit one particular task more readily than another. So database programs are most probably going to be written in a compatible 'language' that suits the database-environment, but games programs will need a low level 'language' (like C) to work quickly enough. If you're creating a database application, it is irrelevant if your display 're-draws' in a tenth of a second or one hundredth of a second, while in video games, it matters a great deal. We need functions that are intended to make life easier for the database-user, therefore a stripped down language for speed is extremely in-appropriate. Its rather like making a difference between the family estate car and a racing-car. The 5 - 7 seater family estate is more comfortable and practical, but it's definitely not created for speed. For the parents & kids taking a prolonged trip though, comfort, warmth and a soft ride are far more significant.

Locating job security in this economic down-turn is very rare. Companies can drop us from the workforce with very little notice - as long as it fits their needs. We're able though to discover security at market-level, by searching for high demand areas, mixed with a lack of qualified workers.

Recently, a national e-Skills survey demonstrated that over 26 percent of IT jobs cannot be filled mainly due to a chronic shortage of well-trained staff. This shows that for each four job positions that exist around the computer industry, there are barely three qualified workers to fill that need. Fully skilled and commercially educated new staff are thus at a resounding premium, and in all likelihood it will stay that way for a long time. Unquestionably, now really is such a perfect time to join IT.

The key Microsoft qualification paths were up-dated a few years ago, as they changed from the older MCAD/MCSD (Microsoft Certified Application/Solutions Developer) to the more modern 'MCTS' ('Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist') & 'MCPD' (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) examinations. Expect to train for two pre-requisite MCTS qualifications prior to getting into the MCPD. If you're new at all to the IT industry & haven't ever written programs before, (even though the initial module from MS is labelled a foundation unit,) we'd say it's wise to study a programming introduction course first. It is also commonly sensible to get a support certification prior to both of them, so a decent idea of software environments and software support may be gained. This will likely also help out with getting your 1st job in the IT sector. The full career track will require somewhere around six to seven hundred hrs of study time, which means if you are studying part time you will be able to do the whole thing in approximately 12 to 18 months.

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