I've been meaning to add to this blog but I've been pretty busy at work. I received a few e-mails from aspiring IT workers regarding my last post on career training vs. certification. I know that it's a paradox. As an IT recruiter, here are some things that I hear all the time:
"I want to work in IT, but I need certifications. I want certifications but I need experience to get them."
or
"Nobody will hire me until I get the certifications and I can't get those until I get a job and some experience under my belt."
This really is a problem for a lot of aspiring career seekers in any field, but especially in IT because of the steep learning curve. College can only get you so far. You need experience or certifications to set yourself apart and make yourself more marketable. Preplogic certification training recently published a list of 27 tips for getting started in IT. This is a great read and I recommend it to anyone who is looking to get started in an IT career.
I recommend Preplogic because they have assisted many employees in our company with training for countless certifications. Our company actually reimburses employees who train with Preplogic once they obtain their certifications.
It all boils down to this:
If you want to get ahead, you need to make an investment in yourself. Your first step is a Comptia A+ certification. That should get your foot in the door at an entry level IT position. There are affordable certification training programs such as Preplogic that are very comprehensive and will give you all of the training you need to prepare for this certification without any other outside help. Keep in mind that when you are searching for a job, prospective employers are making an investment into every new hire. An employer is more likely to invest in a candidate who has gone the extra mile to invest in his/her self. Once you get over the initial speed bump of obtaining your first IT position you will usually find that you have a lot more resources at your disposal to help advance your career.
So earlier this week my boss was interviewing this graphic designer for a position and she’d listed a bunch of her college courses she'd taken in graphic design. You know what? My boss was impressed. Given the amount of career training her college put her through, she’ll start with a higher salary. But should she?
Well, with more on the job training comes a higher salary, right? But what about college courses? This designer’s college education doesn't give what a good three years of actual career training would have done, and I don't know if that warrants more money. Now, I'm not trying to pick on her. I'm just talking about college education in general. The biggest deficit with most of my interviewees isn’t talent—it’s training with the technology they might use. The more technology we put in front of these guys and gals, the better they are at software they’re not already familiar with.
You can tell you’re interviewing someone with the right kind of education—career education and not “academic” education, if you know what I mean—by the strength of the portfolio. Obviously you can’t go on college education and coursework alone. Look at the portfolio. Reject entries that aren’t realistic, and look for ones that represent the roles of real careers.
Of course, a college degree isn’t always the ticket to getting a career in your field. Employers are realistic, and they know that going to school isn’t always practical, or even the best option. In my field, that’s where certifications come in. I'm in IT. Go ahead and study on your own — you’ve learned the material, you’ve passed the exam. The point is, you know what you're doing, and you've had hands-on experience.
These days, real careers use a variety of software and hardware to get the job done. I say, go ahead and offer a higher salary to job seekers who know how to actually use the systems they'll be working with. If the majority of the first year salary is going to go to technology training, I don’t feel like the job seeker deserves anymore than the base requirement.
