Frequently, the typical person has no idea in what direction to head in a computing career, or even what area they should look at getting trained in. What are the chances of us grasping the tasks faced daily in an IT career when it's an alien environment to us? Most likely we don't even know anybody who performs the role either. Deliberation over many factors is essential if you need to expose a solution that suits you:

- Your individual personality plus what interests you - the sort of working tasks you love or hate.

- What sort of time-frame do you want for the training process?

- What are your thoughts on salary vs job satisfaction?

- With so many ways to train in computing - you'll need to pick up some key facts on what makes them different.

- Taking a proper look at what commitment and time that you can put aside.

To bypass all the jargon and confusion, and find the best route for you, have an informal chat with an advisor with years of experience; a person who appreciates and can explain the commercial realities while explaining each qualification.

The classroom style of learning we remember from school, utilising reference manuals and books, can be pretty hard going sometimes. If all this is ringing some familiar bells, find training programs which feature interactive and multimedia modules. Studies in learning psychology have shown that much more of what we learn in remembered when all our senses are involved, and we get physically involved with the study process.

Start a study-program in which you'll get a host of CD and DVD ROM's - you'll be learning from instructor videos and demo's, and be able to practice your skills in interactive lab's. Always insist on a study material demo' from the training company. The package should contain expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and virtual practice lab's for your new skills.

It's usually bad advice to choose training that is only available online. With highly variable reliability and quality from most broadband providers, you should always obtain physical media such as CD or DVD ROM's.

Your training program should always include the most up to date Microsoft (or relevant organisation's) authorised exam preparation and simulation materials. As most IT examining boards are from the USA, it's essential to understand how exam questions will be phrased and formatted. You can't practice properly by simply going through the right questions - it's essential that you can cope with them in the proper exam format. Obviously, it is vital to ensure that you're absolutely ready for your commercial exam prior to doing it. Rehearsing mock-up exams logs the information in your brain and saves you time and money on unsuccessful attempts at exams.

A service provided by many trainers is job placement assistance. It's intention is to assist your search for your first position. At the end of the day it's not as hard as some people make out to get your first job - once you're trained and certified; employers in this country need your skills.

Bring your CV up to date as soon as possible however - you should get plenty of help from your training provider on this. Don't put it off until you've qualified. You'll often find that you'll land your first position while you're still a student (even in the early stages). If your CV doesn't say what you're learning (and it's not being looked at by employers) then you won't even be considered! The best services to help you find a job are generally specialist independent regional recruitment consultancies. Because they only get paid when they place you, they're perhaps more focused on results.

Essentially, as long as you focus the same level of energy into finding your first IT position as into studying, you won't find it too challenging. Some trainees strangely conscientiously work through their training and studies and then just stop once qualified and would appear to think that businesses will just discover them.

The principle Database programs being used around the globe are MS 'SQL' Server & Oracle. 'Oracle' is a more mature System that is still in use on large scale installations, although SQL-Server is much more popular today in most business environments; SQL has become the 'de facto' standard for Databases on the internet. Microsoft has incorporated 'SQL' Server technology into each of the MS programming languages and platforms - making it an obvious choice over 'Oracle' as far as database training goes. The 'MCITP' ('Microsoft Certified IT Professional') and MCTS ('Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist') packages have replaced the older 'MCDBA' ('Microsoft Certified Database Administrator') accreditations. 'SQL' Server 2008 is gaining a bit of momentum, but it really isn't widely utilised in the commercial world yet. For that reason, the MCITP DBA accreditation includes the more popular 'SQL' Server 2005. In common with a number of Microsoft's other qualifications, a variety of MCTS modules precede the full MCITP.

MCTS Database PC Self-Study Interactive Training Courses >>