It's important to understand: the actual training program or the accreditation isn't what this is about; the job or career that you want is. A lot of colleges seem to place too much importance on the qualification itself. Don't let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses who select a program which looks like it could be fun - only to end up with a qualification for an unrewarding career path.

It's well worth a long chat to see the expectations of your industry. What certifications they'll want you to gain and how you'll go about getting some commercial experience. It's also worth spending time assessing how far you reckon you're going to want to get as often it can present a very specific set of accreditations. Always seek guidance and advice from a skilled professional, even if you have to pay - it's much safer and cheaper to discover early on whether your choices are appropriate, instead of discovering after two full years that the job you've chosen is not for you and have to return to the start of another program.

In order to attain the full MCSA you need to pass four individual MCP exams (MCP is short for Microsoft Certified Professional). Three of those are 'core' examinations that must be taken, and one is an elective. An additional elective within the group is the 'Comptia' Security+ , which is increasingly preferred by lots of trainees instead of a 4th 'MCP'. To successfully achieve your overall MCSE you have seven 'MCP' examinations to gain. These predominantly stress network design, security & systems planning.

In most cases, your everyday IT hopeful has no idea how they should get into IT, or what sector they should look at getting trained in. Since without any previous experience in the IT industry, how could any of us understand what anyone doing a particular job actually does? To come through this, there should be a discussion of a variety of unique issues:

- Your individual personality and interests - the sort of working tasks you enjoy or dislike.

- What time-frame are you looking at for your training?

- What priority do you place on salary vs job satisfaction?

- Often, trainees don't consider the amount of work demanded to get fully certified.

- It makes sense to understand the differences across each area of training.

The best way to avoid the confusing industry jargon, and reveal what'll really work for you, have an informal meeting with an industry expert and advisor; a person who appreciates and can explain the commercial realities whilst covering each certification.

Always expect authorised exam simulation and preparation programs included in your course. Due to the fact that many IT examination boards are from the USA, you need to become familiar with their phraseology. It's no use merely understanding random questions - they need to be in the proper exam format. Ensure that you ask for testing modules so you can verify your comprehension at all times. Practice exams will help to boost your attitude - then the actual exam is much easier.

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