Five Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Signing UpPage: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 or Go To our Certification Articles Section
As with any field, there are good technical training schools,
and bad ones. When you sign up with one of these schools,
you’ve made a significant investment in time and money.
You deserve to know everything about the school and your job
prospects after leaving that school before you put down your
hard-earned money. The problem is, sometimes it’s hard
to know the right questions to ask.
The point of this article is not to bash technical training
schools. That’s how I got my start in IT eight years
ago, and today I’m a CCIE™ and own my own Cisco
training company and my own consulting firm.
Before I ever put down the first dime, though, I asked some
tough questions. So should you.
What are my true job prospects and legitimate salary levels
after I graduate from your school?
We’ve all heard the ads on the radio… “Did
you know the average salary of an MCSE is $80,000?” “Are
you worth $65,000 a year? If not, call us!”
I’m an optimist, and I often tell people that no field
rewards individual achievement and drive like IT does. Having
said that, none of us start at the top, and darn few of us
start at that kind of salary.
I’m sure that there are some people who broke in at
$80,000, but I haven’t met very many of them. Be very
wary of technical schools that use the famous/infamous MCSE
Salary Survey as a marketing tool. They tend to represent
those salaries as starting salaries.
Ask your technical school what the average starting salary
of their graduates is. And keep in mind that salary is not
the most important factor to consider when looking for your
first job in IT; it’s the experience you’ll be able
to put on your resume later on that you should weigh heavily
at this point.
In short, be very careful about schools that brag about starting
salaries. It’s not where you start, it’s where you
end up.
How up-to-date are the courses you’re offering?
Make sure the school you’re going to attend has made
efforts to keep their courses relevant. Ask what changes have
been made to their curriculum in the last three years. No
field changes faster than IT. If the answer to that question
is “none”, look somewhere else.
I want to work in IT security. Have you placed anyone in
this field lately? If so, can I talk to them?
Technical schools are jumping on the security bandwagon,
with a couple of schools running ads about training you to
work in Homeland Security. If that’s your goal, that’s
great, but keep in mind that you have to get a security clearance
for any job like that.
And how do you get a security clearance? You have to be sponsored.
And who will sponsor you? Your employer.
Can you get employed in a Homeland Security job without having
the clearance in the first place?
Hmmm. Probably not.
Hello, Catch-22.
Again, I’m certainly not saying you can’t eventually
get an IT security job; if that’s where you want to go,
you can eventually get there. The key word there is “eventually”.
Ask the school you’re thinking of attending whether they’ve
actually been able to place graduates in such jobs. Ask to
talk to them. If the school’s managed to do so, they’ll
be glad to put you in touch with such graduates.
What textbooks does your school use?
Some technical school chains use only books that someone
in their organization wrote. I’ve heard some of their
own teachers complain about the quality of these books. The
technical school I attended used off-the-shelf books, and
the quality was very good.
If you’re looking into entering the IT field, you probably
know someone who’s already in it. Use that resource for
everything it’s worth. Ask that person what they think
about the books, or for that matter, what the local reputation
of the school is. IT is a small world, if the school has a
good or bad reputation, most of the IT personnel in your city
or town probably know about it.
The fifth question is a question to ask of HR representatives.
Every technical school lists companies where they’ve
placed their graduates on their promotional material. Pick
up the phone, call these companies, and ask to speak to someone
in HR. Ask that person about the reputation of the school.
Five to eight phone calls will give you a good picture of
where the school stands with local employers.
Making the decision to attend a technical school can be the
best decision you’ve ever made; it certainly was for
me. Make sure to ask the right questions before writing a
check or taking a loan to attend; the answers to those questions
will indicate to you whether this school is truly the school
that can help you achieve your dreams.
About the Author:
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage,
home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study
Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. For a FREE copy
of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and
“How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download
your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam
questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!
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