Any advice...?

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Good morning to you all.

I found this forum while searching for reviews on computeach and I am very impressed with the friendlyness and helpfulness of everybody so far.

I am currently looking to get into computing. I studied Mathematics at University but failed my final year. I have recently transferred my University credit to the Open University and have just completed my final course and will be receiving my degree sometime next year. Effectively my degree is in Mathematics and Humanities (the coursed I did with OU where History and Creative Writing courses). It is now time to settle down and actually get a career. I currently work two part time jobs. One at an Insurance Adjuster that deals with Jewellery claims and the other at the Theatre where I am the Deputy Front of House Manager.

I contacted Computeach with a view to finding out about getting into Web Design and a representative visited me last week. He suggested that with my Mathematics background that Programming would probably be a better career path for me as with my customer service background I would probably make a good developer. His suggested certification route was: MCDST, MCAD (either VB .net or C# .net) then MCSD. He thought I could probably skip A+ and go straight for MCDST and through their recruitment agency he suggested I could probably get a job as a Junior Programmer in 6 months (as long as I put the work in). He was actually very helpful and at no point did he give me the hard sell (he did of course give Computeach shining reviews but there was no bullying or promises made). Of course, the prohibitive thing about computeach was the cost. £6250 for the whole route. If I was to study with Microsoft books and Microsoft eLearning I could do the same thing for half the price. So £3000 is for tutor support and in house days and there recruitment agency. He also said I could combine Programming and Web Design with some CIW courses (Haven't had any detail about this but I think this is what I would like to do).

My question is - does this sound like a good route (I know A+ is a good thing to have and I feel that maybe I should start with that) AND would I be more employable if I trained through a recognised trainer or if I took the self-study route?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. (Sorry if I rambled at all)

 

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well, I wouldnt necessarily disagree that programming is a good route with your maths background. Maths certainly helps, and makes it easier to understand whats going on.

But then again, Server-side Web-development pretty much IS programming anyway. So I see no reason why you couldnt do that. Personally, I would figure out what you WANT to do, not what they want you to do. If you are better designing websites, and enjoy it more, go down that route. MS have several Express editions of their development suite - one for asp.net, vb.net, c#.net, etc. Go and download one or two of these, work through the tutorials, maybe get a book or two and try to design something in them. Find out what you are good at, and what you enjoy.

Once you have done that for a while, then begin to think about which route you want to go down. After that, start thinking of the exams and training (if necessary), but I wouldnt suggest taking any training route (and certainly not paying 3k for it) until you are sure its the route you want to go.

Most people here will recommend self-study rather than a training provider. Its your choice at the end of the day, but most people dont like forking out huge sums of money for what is usually not very much return.

As for getting a job, I had a difficult time getting a development job, and I had been programming for about a year with my last job. Even with the certifications, it wont be an easy job, as you wont have any actual experience to back it up. Its not impossible (I did get a good break, and got a great job - good pay too), but its hard.

 

The Computeach representative might be right about what you might like best in IT... but as far as your career path, he doesn't know what he's talking about... he's trying to sell you a load of courses, some of which are entirely irrelevant to programming. The A+ and MCDST are great if you're looking to get into tech support... but absolutely irrelevant to being a programmer.

Whether you decide to be a programmer or tech, you can learn it through self-study as long as you set your mind to it. Do what Fergal suggests in his post... be sure you want to follow that course of study before spending that kind of money. At the end of the day, the decision is up to you, but keep in mind that self-study is SO much cheaper than a training course. As someone else on here said once, I've heard many tales of woe from people who decided to use a training provider... but I've never heard a tale of woe from someone who decided to use self-study methods and learn on their own (original poster: can I use that? That's an excellent line... ).

Welcome, and best of luck!

 

Thanks for your help guys.

I have decided that I will go the self-study route but first I'm going to do as Fergal suggests and find out what I would prefer to do.

One more question: As someone with no experience to speak of, is it worth doing A+ and MCDST and try to get an entry level help desk position to build up some industry experience? Or can I go straight for either Programming or Web Design certs and try and get in the ground level in those fields?

Thanks for your time again.

CHEERS

 

Greetings, Spidey1978. Welcome to CertForums.

If you know little or nothing about programming/web development, you might want to take a look at this site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/

It's a programming tutorial site for newbies that offers information on both the web developer and programmer tracks. It might help shed some light on these subjects and make deciding on a study path easier for you.

 

if you decide to go down that route, may I suggest http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/ <-- same people that made the videos on msdn site