Do you belong to a professional organisation?

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Of course Chartered Accountant status requires you to be a member of an Association such as ACCA or ACA because of the areas of accountancy that are regulated under British law eg auditing, tax advice etc .

I am currently unaware of any such regulations under IT. anyone?

 

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No, there is no license to practice for IT and personally, I wouldn't want to see it go that way. I also feel it's impractical with the vast array of certs (vendor and otherwise).

 

How do I know if my views are or aren't being represented if they refuse to tell me what they are doing ?

 

You don't keep up standards to preserve your Chartered status so if you committed some awful faux pas or whatever then UI suppsoe there's a mechanism to have your Membership withdrawn (and then obviously you would be unable to quote you were a CITP). I think it's been publicly stated that CITP is under review so we'll have to wait for an announcement on the review process.

 

Dark, is there a BCS group on LinkedIn then I take it? Can I get an invite please?

 

There are about 65 different BCS Groups on LinkedIn. You obviously have to be a BCS Member (some will check your Membership Number out) and you may not get access to all as it will depend on your level of Membership i.e. if you're not CITP then you don't get to join a CITP Group (or ELITE).

If you just search BCS under Groups you'll see the list and you can also look at your network connections to see what groups they belong to. Many Branches and Specialist Groups are also on there but searching under the generic BCS should bring them all up for you.

Very few are instigated from BCS HQ i.e. they are set up and run by Members. Some are unused and have few Members so check that before requesting to join.

 

Oh and there's also a few groups on facebook too

 

Thanks Dark, I was checking it out as you did your post. Have applied to the MBCS group.

 

Phew, for a second there I thought you had figured out I was stalking you.

 

Its just "British Computer Society". Personally I think the Groups on LinkedIn are better, the Facebook one doesn't seem to be conducted as "professionally".

I got my free 6 months membership of the ILM (for being an out of work manager) but it only gives you Ordinary Grade membership so no post-nominals. I didn't bother with CMA in the end.

I did contact an IET adviser but it seemed a real faff to be honest so that's on hold too for the moment (until I get back into work).

 

It seems to me that people have a negative view of trade associations. Joining comptia is a good idea if:

1.) you are looking to sit a certification in the near future
2.) you work for an IT company.

Reason is that comptia have just launched a brand new set of membership packages for "IT Resellers" (which they classify as the all encompassing term for Solution Providers, MSPs, VARs, Resellers, Service Providers, Technology Retailers or Sellers of Information Technology Hardware or Telecommunications or Software or Services or Internet Development Firms...).

If you fit into this category, you can purchase a years "silver VAR membership" for $250 (about £152 as of today according to xe.com) which gets you a free certification of your choice. Obviously the A+ is £114 so you wouldn't be saving money, but Network+, Server+, Linux+, PDI+, DHTI+, RFID+, Convergence+, CTT+ (CBT) all cost £169 so you save £17. With the Security+, CDIA+ and CTT+ (VBT) you save £39.

Not to mention you get a discount on all other certifications you buy whilst you have your membership (about 20%... e.g. A+ member price is £95 compared to non member of £114, Network+ is £136 and £169, Security+ is £153 and £191.)

Thought you lot would like to know...