just it, cerco etc...

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi!
I'm a self-thought computer enthusiast who wants to change his career and get into it support job. I know pc and windows administration topics well enough to pass exams like A+, 70-680 swiftly. I did just recently ccna for fun just to see how hard it is. I don't have a degree. I know few guys with uni degrees in computing who struggled to get any interviews for many many months until they joined fdm group. I would go that route happily if only I got a degree which is a prerequisite for them. So I'm stuck with options like JustIT or Cerco. First one is costly but can expose to 1st line support jobs, second one is free but I think you end up with occasional irregular Epos support jobs. Any advice or experience about JustIT vs Cerco would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Rather than going down that route go down the usual route of applying for roles, blanket out your CV, speak to local charities and churches etc to get some support experience under your belt and just carry on trying.

I would be reluctant of giving money to a company to get me a job (or even having a company deduct money from my salary) and would prefer to go down the route of finding work myself.

I am sorry to say that for the most part there have been a lot of horror stories about various companies using this technique and very few fairy tales about things just 'falling' into place for anyone.

Unfortunately with the recession we are in it's unlikely that you will have a lot of opportunities of finding just the right job straight away, I know of guys here who spent months if not years trying to get their first IT role so you're not on your own. Just carry on trying and do your best (have a look at my post here to get some more ideas.

 

hi there - i would not recommend going to Cerco. I paid £4000 for their "we get you job at the end of the course" promise and was still out of work 4 months after it!

I would however recommend that you seek employment in a contact centre, maybe supporting AOL/Sky etc, thats how i (and im sure lots of other people)ended up getting a foot in the door.

If you are confident enough, sit your A+ at your local Prometric centre, its a good cert to have under your belt.

Best of luck!! (just dont part with your cash in too much of a hurry!)

- - - Updated - - -

http://www.certforums.com/forums/training-development/12438-cerco-trainees-uk.html

a few horror stories im afraid......

 

I nearly went with Cerco - had all but signed on the dotted line for £4K, when someone here pointed out Cerco's main qualification wasn't widely recognised and that I could get the internationally standard A+ by buying a £20 book, an £80 exam voucher, a £50 old PC, and keep the other £3,850!
Haven't looked back.

Though, word is Cerco's actual training is really good. Was that side okay for you?

 

I included Cerco in my questions only because I did a bit of research and as I understood they stopped charging for course some time ago. What they do instead is - get you to do the course (just pay yourself for hotel 2 weeks in Crewe) and ask to commit yourself to be available to them for any job that comes up. The catch is that job is epos support with limited opportunity to progress, you need to have your own transport (wonder if motorcycle counts), it's self-employment kind of where they don't guarantee anything - so you might end up sitting whole month waiting for phone call to only do one day temporary job. Might be actually fair offer if someone still lives with parents and they pay for car insurance.
On the other hand if you go with JustIT (I believe pay-as-you-earn stuff is ~£2000 deposit), pass all exams, do 4 week job experience and they still don't help you to get any interviews at least your CV is enhanced with 4 certs plus few lines under employment/experience section.
I think my next step will be getting hands on Just IT contract to study all small print since I might be able to budget £2000 for a shot to speed up my employment prospects.
Thanks for replies

 

I agree with Simon here. Have you actually tried putting your CV out for some entry level jobs? Why bother spending all that money to "speed up you employment prospects"? If a degree didn't do it for your friends, are you really sure a few certs are going to do anything for you?

Why not get your CV polished, then spend a few months putting it out to as many jobs as you can, see what bites. You might get lucky and hit upon a job without having to spend anything more than a bit of time.

If all that fails, then you can re-consider signing up to a costly (and IMO - pointless) programme with JustIT. But why spend money on something on the off-chance it might help you, without first trying the free approaches that also might help you.