Whether you have a college degree or not, certification programs are becoming the measure of proficiency for IT professionals. It’s a simple fact that those who pursue knowledge will reap the benefits. It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the primary method an employer knows someone has the skills and knowledge to succeed is if they are certified. Certification provides a common definition and credential. Certification is proof that you have the training. Once someone has become certified and gotten some experience, their earning potential increases dramatically.
There are many schools in the St. Louis area offering certification and training. Some of these include: St. Louis Community Colleges (over 8 locations), Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Louis and Clark Community College in Godfrey Illinois (6 locations) and CompUSA stores (over 160 locations nationwide with 3 training centers in St. Louis). Several of the more popular courses offered are Cisco networking, A+, Network+, and more recently, Certificated Internet Webmaster (CIW), Flash programming and graphics design (Adobe PhotoShop). All of the instructors of these institutions are certified professionals and have had years of field and classroom experience.
The programs offered by these training centers are quite flexible and designed to meet the needs of the student. Most can accommodate the student’s schedule, whether study is preferred during the day, evening or weekend. Also of interest is the fact that most all classes are available for distance learning; if you have an Internet connection, you can do 90% of your training from home. If a student is motivated to get a better job or start a new career, these training centers will work with them to get them certified.
How can you determine to what degree that certification will help your career or earning potential? Here are some ideas:
” Ask a veteran Certified professionals are an excellent resource for background or startup information. Study and user groups can also be an invaluable wealth of information.
” Get some recommendations Many books and articles on certification reference other resources on these topics.
” Make friends with an instructor Someone who teaches this material is a great source of information on the subject. A relationship with such a person can be a great help in determining how to fill in any gaps in your education and experience.
” Do some web research turn your web searching skills to look for such information.
How much does certification matter?
Many IT professionals contend that certification provides the key to automatic wealth and happiness. Others claim that certification by itself is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. Glancing through the job listings on-line, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that most companies prefer people with experience. The number of years preferred depends on the nature of the task. Job listings often appear which state that certification is definitely helpful or even preferred, but the job still requires 2-4 years of experience. With the experience, the certification can be a powerful piece of paper to possess. To maximize your certification, you’ll need to combine it with experience. Collect a few years of experience and work your way up that ladder until you land the job of your dreams.
Training After Certification
In today’s IT workplace, an employee’s knowledge base turns over every several years. This turns any IT job into a continuous cycle of education. As old knowledge is forced to give way to new, IT employees often return to technical certifications as a way to maintain their edge and to demonstrate their continued technical competence. However, the temptation to rely upon experience after achieving a major milestone such as an IT certification can be tremendous. The longer that you wait, the more you’ll have to do to play catch-up at some point in the future.
C. Kent Lissa is a Flash developer and training video production specialist and can be reached via email at ckent@mwtechjournal.com.