You have to make sure that all your qualifications are commercially valid and current - don't bother with studies that lead to in-house certificates. If your certification doesn't come from a conglomerate such as Microsoft, CompTIA, Adobe or Cisco, then you'll probably find it could have been a waste of time and effort - because no-one will recognise it.

We can guess that you've always enjoyed practical work - the 'hands-on' individual. If you're anything like us, the world of book-reading and classrooms is something you'll force on yourself if you absolutely have to, but it doesn't suit your way of doing things. Consider interactive, multimedia study if learning from books is not your thing. Research has constantly demonstrated that connecting physically with our study, will more likely produce memories that are deeper and longer-lasting.

The latest audio-visual interactive programs utilising video demo's and practice lab's beat books hands-down. And they're far more fun. Always insist on a study material demo' from the training company. You should ask for demo's from instructors, slideshows and virtual practice lab's for your new skills.

It is generally unwise to go for purely on-line training. With highly variable reliability and quality from all internet service providers, it makes sense to have physical media such as CD or DVD ROM's.

For the most part, your normal student really has no clue how they should get into IT, or even which sector they should look at getting trained in. What is our likelihood of grasping the tasks faced daily in an IT career when it's an alien environment to us? Most likely we don't know someone who works in that sector anyway. Achieving the right decision really only appears via a systematic study of many changing factors:

- Personalities play a major part - what things get your juices flowing, and what tasks really turn you off.

- What is the time-frame for retraining?

- Where do you stand on salary vs the travel required?

- With so many markets to choose from in Information Technology - you'll need to achieve some key facts on what separates them.

- Having a cold, hard look into the effort, commitment and time that you're going to put into it.

For the majority of us, getting to the bottom of all these ideas will require meeting with an advisor that has direct industry experience. And not just the qualifications - but the commercial needs and expectations of the market as well.

Microsoft Database Administration Career Interactive Self-Study Certification Courses >>