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Five Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Signing UpAs with any field, there are good technical training schools, and bad ones. When you sign up with one of these schools, you?ve made a significant investment in time and money. You deserve to know everything about the school and your job prospects after leaving that school before you put down your hard-earned money. The problem is, sometimes it?s hard to know the right questions to ask. Cisco Certification Introduction To ISDN Part V Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part V The major reason I recommend getting your hands on real Cisco equipment rather than a simulator is that real Cisco routers give you the chance to pra.. How up-to-date are the courses you?re offering? Make sure the school you?re going to attend has made efforts to keep their courses relevant. Ask what changes have been made to their curriculum in the last three years. No field changes faster than IT. If the answer to that question is ,none,, look somewhere else. I want to work in IT security. Have you placed anyone in this field lately? If so, can I talk to them? Technical schools are jumping on the security bandwagon, with a couple of schools running ads about training you to work in Homeland Security. If that?s your goal, that?s great, but keep in mind that you have to get a security clearance for any job like that. And how do you get a security clearance? You have to be sponsored. And who will sponsor you? Your employer. Can you get employed in a Homeland Security job without having the clearance in the first place? Hmmm. Probably not. Hello, Catch-22. Cisco Certification Introduction To ISDN Part I Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part I From the CCNA to the CCIE, ISDN is one of the most important technolgies youll work with. Its also very common in the field; ISDN is frequently use.. Again, I?m certainly not saying you can?t eventually get an IT security job; if that?s where you want to go, you can eventually get there. The key word there is ,eventually,. Ask the school you?re thinking of attending whether they?ve actually been able to place graduates in such jobs. Ask to talk to them. If the school?s managed to do so, they?ll be glad to put you in touch with such graduates. What textbooks does your school use? Some technical school chains use only books that someone in their organization wrote. I?ve heard some of their own teachers complain about the quality of these books. The technical school I attended used off-the-shelf books, and the quality was very good. If you?re looking into entering the IT field, you probably know someone who?s already in it. Use that resource for everything it?s worth. Ask that person what they think about the books, or for that matter, what the local reputation of the school is. IT is a small world, if the school has a good or bad reputation, most of the IT personnel in your city or town probably know about it. The fifth question is a question to ask of HR representatives. Every technical school lists companies where they?ve placed their graduates on their promotional material. Pick up the phone, call these companies, and ask to speak to someone in HR. Ask that person about the reputation of the school. Five to eight phone calls will give you a good picture of where the school stands with local employers. Making the decision to attend a technical school can be the best decision you?ve ever made; it certainly was for me. Make sure to ask the right questions before writing a check or taking a loan to attend; the answers to those questions will indicate to you whether this school is truly the school that can help you achieve your dreams. Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of freeCCNA andCCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, ,How To Pass The CCNA, and ,How To Pass The CCNP,, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass theCCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!
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