A useful feature that several companies offer is job placement assistance. The service is put in place to help you find your first job in the industry. The honest truth is that it isn't so complicated as you might think to get employment - as long as you've got the necessary skills and qualifications; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.

Update your CV at the beginning of your training though (advice and support for this should come from your course provider). Don't procrastinate and leave it until you've graduated or passed any exams. Various junior support roles have been bagged by trainees who are in the process of training and haven't got any qualifications yet. This will at the very least get you on your way. If you don't want to travel too far to work, then you'll often find that a specialist locally based employment agency might serve you better than a national service, as they're far more likely to have insider knowledge of the jobs that are going locally.

Not inconsiderable numbers of people, it would appear, are prepared to study their hearts out (for years sometimes), only to give up at the first hurdle when finding a job. Introduce yourself... Do everything you can to get yourself known. Good jobs don't just knock on your door.

To successfully acquire your 'MCSA' certification, there are actually four MCP ('Microsoft Certified Professional') exams you must pass. Of these, three exams are compulsory subjects and therefore have to be taken, but the 4th is actually selected from a choice of electives. A particularly valuable & completely accepted 'elective' is the CompTIA-Security+ , which for understandable reasons is starting to become very favoured by trainees. In order to successfully obtain your overall MCSE you have seven MCP examinations to gain. These particularly place importance upon network design, Security and systems-planning.

With the correct quality of training materials and 24 hr help and support, and also an authorised exam preparation software, an MCSA should take approximately 300 to maybe 350 hrs to finish, and the 'MCSE' all over 500 - 550 hrs. Assuming you have any experience you could realistically study in your free time and attain your accreditations in under a year. Without any past experience it would be rash to jump right in. The 'Comptia' 'A+' and 'Network+' need to be regarded as the starting point. These may take close to 200 hours to do, which for the brand new part-time student will probably equal 6-8 months. Particulars of 'A+' and Network+ qualifications are on the CompTIA pages of this website.

Often, trainers provide piles of reference manuals and workbooks. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and isn't the best way to go about remembering. Long-term memory is enhanced when all our senses are brought into the mix - this has been an accepted fact in expert circles for years now.

Interactive audio-visual materials utilising video demo's and practice lab's will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And they're a lot more fun to do. It's imperative to see the type of training provided by the company you're considering. Be sure that they contain instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab's.

It's folly to opt for on-line only training. Due to the variable nature of connection quality from all internet service providers, you should always obtain actual CD or DVD ROM's.

Consider only study programmes that lead to industry accepted accreditations. There are loads of small companies pushing minor 'in-house' certificates which aren't worth the paper they're printed on in the real world. To an employer, only top businesses such as Microsoft, Adobe, CompTIA or Cisco (as an example) will open the right doors. Anything less just doesn't cut the mustard.