If you think Cisco training might be for you, and you've not yet worked with routers, initially you should go for the Cisco CCNA qualification. This will give you skills for setting up and maintaining routers. The internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers, and large companies with many locations also need routers to allow their networks to keep in touch.

The sort of jobs available with this qualification mean you'll be more likely to work for large companies that are spread out geographically but need their computer networks to talk to each other. Or, you may move on to being employed by an internet service provider. These jobs are well paid and in demand.

Find a tailored course that covers everything to ensure you have the correct skill set and abilities before starting your training in Cisco skills.

With so much choice, it's not really surprising that a large majority of trainees balk at what job they will follow. Consequently, without any experience in the IT industry, how are you equipped to know what someone in a particular field fills their day with? And of course decide on which training route is the most likely for ultimate success. The key to answering this issue appropriately lies in a full conversation around several areas:

* Our personalities play a major part - what gives you a 'kick', and what are the areas that really turn you off.

* Why you're looking at moving into Information Technology - maybe you'd like to overcome a life-long goal like firing your boss and working for yourself for example.

* Any personal or home needs you have?

* Often, trainees don't consider the time demanded to gain all the necessary accreditation.

* It makes sense to take in what is different for each individual training area.

For the average person, considering so much data will require meeting with someone who can investigate each area with you. And we don't just mean the certifications - you also need to understand the commercial expectations and needs of industry too.

It only makes sense to consider study courses which will move onto commercially acknowledged certifications. There's an endless list of minor schools offering 'in-house' certificates which are worthless in the real world. The top IT companies like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe all have internationally renowned skills courses. These heavyweights can make sure you stand out at interview.

Several companies supply a practical Job Placement Assistance service, to help you get your first job. With the great shortage of skills in the United Kingdom right now, it's not too important to place too much emphasis on this feature however. It isn't such a complex operation to secure a job once you're properly qualified.

Help with your CV and interview techniques should be offered (alternatively, check out one of our sites for help). Be sure to you work on your old CV immediately - not when you're ready to start work! It's not uncommon to find that junior support roles have been offered to students who are in the process of training and have yet to take their exams. At least this will get your CV into the 'possible' pile and not the 'no' pile. If you don't want to travel too far to work, then you'll often find that an independent and specialised local employment service could work much better for you than the trainer's recruitment division, because they're far more likely to have insider knowledge of what's available near you.

Fundamentally, if you put the same amount of effort into landing your first IT position as into studying, you won't have any problems. A number of men and women inexplicably invest a great deal of time on their training course and then just stop once they've got certified and seem to suppose that interviewers know they're there.

Typically, a new trainee will not know to ask about a painfully important area - how their company divides up the physical training materials, and into how many separate packages. Often, you will join a program staged over 2 or 3 years and receive one element at a time until graduation. It seems to make sense on one level, but consider these issues: It's not unusual for trainees to realise that their training company's usual training route isn't as suitable as another. They might find it's more expedient to use an alternative order of study. And what if you don't get to the end inside of the expected timescales?

In a perfect world, you want ALL the study materials up-front - so you'll have them all for the future to come back to - irrespective of any schedule. Variations can then be made to the order that you complete your exams where a more intuitive path can be found.

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