jobs after training with Compteach NITLC

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I am wondering if anyone out there has started their IT career since completing courses with a training company.

Also how has the career gone? Has you salary increased as expected? what previous IT experience did you have.

I am looking into changing career to the IT industry, but have a family to support, according to the information I will see a slight drop in salary from present then it should soon rise above.

Before I sign into taking a course I would like to know if it is possible to breakthrough into the industry, I am not looking for mega bucks but would like to be earning around £25,000.

Could anyoone let me know of their experiences and wether the courses are worth while.

 

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http://www.certmag.com/issues/jun01/feature_trent.cfm

I am always a little nervous of companies who guarantee a job after compleating your certification - it's a little unrealistc I think and they also seem to charge a lot for the training.

Its a case of what you want to do and what area of IT you want to work in - maybe talking to some recruitment companies about low level temping for hand on experiance whilst you are training.

It is possible to earn 25k although you would need some hands on experience as well as the certification.

 

Thanks for the reply - i have looked around the forums - and that seems to be the general opinion - not to trust the garueented job policies.
I was actually hoping that someone might have some first hand experience or a career story.

 

Ahh I'm sure some of the guys out there have some first hand experiance - I'm on the other side, so to speak, I work for a Learning/Certification organisation.

 

hmm how can we put it simply..

its all a big fat lie induced by fatcat marketing folks wanting more of your hard earned cash that was earmarked for your daughters college education who never actually come through with thier end of the bargin due to numerous and very small notes at the foot of the santanicly binding contract you signed waiving them of all responsiblity should they say 'mushrooms' three times backwards?

yeah thats simple enough

 

I'll try to keep this brief. I lost my job over 5 years ago and had to take low paying employment to support the family. After a year, I wasn't able to get back into my career so started looking around for options (my low paying job was a deadend).

I decided on IT and looked into a local for-profit provider and was within a heartbeat of signing with them when I looked at my local public university. They offered a number of two year degrees in different professions including IT at a fraction of the cost of the private firm. I had been feeling uncomfortable with their "admissions" practices as it seemed all too easy to qualify for their program as long as you could pay them. I dropped them pretty quickly and went the public route.

I started gaining part-time freelance experience as a contract tech while still going to school full-time and working my slave job full-time. Needless to say, I didn't always get alot of sleep. I still didn't have a full-time gig by the time I graduated.

Although the school had a "career center", no one ever guarenteed me a job. That would have been ridiculous. Neither the school nor the state's employment office ever ended up getting me work. It was all my own efforts working hard and taking chances.

Things picked up slowly until my freelance work was cutting into my "secure" slave job. After discussing it with my wife, we decided that I would quit the slave job and take a temp position at an IT department. When that job ended, things got pretty lean for awhile. I got part-time jobs to make things work out.

A year ago, I got my current full-time job as a technical writer for a software company. Things are continuing to go strong and while I no longer take freelance tech work, I do freelance technical writing and editing on the side.

The process is not smooth and it is not easy and there are no guarentees. There were times I thought I'd never make another dime and times when I was working two and three low paying slave jobs just to make it through school and support my family. It paid off though.

I still don't make quite what I used to in my old career 5 to 6 years ago taking inflation into account, but we're doing ok. If things take off the way I hope, money woes will not quite be the same sort of pain in the arse as they are now and my wife will be able to give up *her* slave job.

Hope this helps some. I know where you are. I've been there.

 

Trip is our resident proof that it can be done
He has a family, a mortgage, and all those other responsiblities that came with it, but he took the plunge and is now one of our most respected and technically informed members, i think thats proof enough that there is a light at the end somewhere, but you have to carry yourself there, nobody gets a free ticket

 

Yes, Trip is the shining example. I'll be able to give you an up to date run down on Computeach's careers section (Software Professionals), in the near future.

 

Well, let me throw another actual scenario at you. Sorry for the very long post.

After 22 & 1/2 years in the heating and air conditioning field, I wanted a career change. I didn't really care in what field, I just wanted a change.

Being a computer geek since high school, my wife suggests a career in IT. Having thought about that before, I shyed away from it due to all the horror stories I've heard about someone working for a company for a long time, then coming to work to discover your job isn't there anymore, and then having to be out of work for a long time because you can't find anything.

So, I signed up at one of those "get your cert and we'll give you a job" type places, and took out a substancial student loan to pay for it. The financial institution actually sent the school my money 2 months before my first class was to start, and low and behold, the Sunday before my classes were to start I get a phone call that classes had been suspended while the company goes through "restructuring", which we fould out meant the owner of the school had made enough money and closed the doors, leaving me with a student loan and no training. I even had a lawyer look at my contract trying to get out of it and was told by the wording I was SOL.

Luckally, a local technical school stepped in and took all of us in.

Being that I wasn't unhappy in my current job, I strolled along at my own pace and got my A+, Net+, MCP, and MCSA on the 2K track, while installing small home and office networks.

So I would send my resume out and I would get the interviews and the job offers, but I wasn't willing to take such a paycut just to get into IT. Again, I wasn't unhappy where I was, I just wanted a change.

This went on for a few years until I saw an ad for a company looking for a technical support/admin position. I firgured what the heck and sent in a resume. Got a call, went in for the interview, and got the job at $5 (US) more per hour than I was making. I was told I got the job because of my working knowledge and theory and my certs, even though I didn't have any professional experience to put on a resume.

So a career change plus having a wife and son to support and a house payment made me wanting to change careers a bit nerve racking. At least I know that if my IT career doesn't work out, I have skilled trades to fall back on.

So to answer your question, yes you can get into IT from a career change, and yes you can get in making the same money (or in my case, a few dollars more).

My advise would be to not give up hope. I went on DOZENS of interviews only to find out the job was paying $10 per hour, and you can make that here working at McDonalds as a fry cook.

It's taken me 3 & 1/2 years to get into IT. I've only been with this company about a month, so the verdict isn't in yet, both on my terms and theirs. The career change was a huge culture shock to me, and I'm having to play by a lot of new rules that I've never had to play be before. Those of you who are already there know the corporate BS I'm talking about.

Although what I'm doing right now isn't exactly what I want to be doing, it's a foot in the door, and that's what you have to look for. You may have to start out in something you do not like, but look down the road at where you want to go.

Ok, my fingers are tired from all this typing......gonna go fix me a sammage.

(Sorry, "sammage" is a slang southern term for "sandwich")

 

Thanks everyone for their responses -
From reading previous forum articles - It not as they say in the adverts - but I am always a bit sceptical- so I was right.

I have some one from comuteach coming round next week - and will ask the questions I need answering - thanks to all of your help.

I am also now looking into self study - but am unsure of the list of qualification I need and where the best place to find all the required packs - If anyone knows of a good website - please could you add it.

Once again thanks - Still a alot to consider.