.::.Easy Mind Reading.::.

Congratulations! Hitting upon this feature means you're likely to be wondering about where you're going, and if it's new career training you're deliberating over you've already done more than most. Are you aware that a small minority of us are fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs - but the majority will just put up with it. Why not liberate yourself and make a start - don't you think you deserve it.

On the subject of training, it's essential to first define your requirements from the career you're looking to get into. It's important to discover if a new career would suit you better before your energies are focused on changing the direction of your life. Prudence suggests looking at the big picture first, to make an informed decision:

* Do you operate better working alone or is being part of a team an essential criteria for you?

* The building trade and the banking industry are none too stable these days, so think carefully about the sector that would give you the most options?

* Once you've qualified, are you hoping your new skills will give you the ability to take you through to retirement?

* Do you have niggles about your chances of finding new employment, and staying employable until you plan to retire?

It's important that your number one choice is the IT sector - it's well known that it's on the grow. It's not full of geeky individuals gazing at their PC's all day - we know those roles do exist, but most jobs are done by people like you and me who earn considerably more than most.

One crafty way that training companies make more money is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course and then including an 'Exam Guarantee'. It looks like a good deal, but let's just examine it more closely:

Of course it isn't free - you're still being charged for it - the price has simply been included in the whole thing. Students who enter their exams one by one, funding them one at a time are in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt. They are aware of their spending and prepare more appropriately to make sure they're ready.

Why should you pay the college early for exams? Go for the best offer when you take the exam, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance - and take it closer to home - not at somewhere of their bidding. Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you've paid early for exam fees when there's absolutely nothing that says you have to? Huge profits are netted by organisations charging upfront for all their exams - and then hoping that you won't take them all. The majority of organisations will require you to sit pre-tests and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you've completely proven that you're likely to pass - which makes an 'Exam Guarantee' frankly useless.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric exams coming in at approximately 112 pounds in Great Britain, the most cost-effective way to cover the cost is by paying when you need them. Why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra at the beginning of your training? Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

Ignore the typical salesperson who pushes one particular program without a decent chat to better understand your current abilities and also your level of experience. Always check they have access to a expansive stable of training programs so they're able to give you an appropriate solution. With a strong background, or maybe some work-based experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then it's more than likely your starting point will be very different from someone with no background whatsoever. Starting with a user skills module first may be the ideal way to start into your computer training, but really depends on your level of familiarity with computers.

We're regularly asked to explain why qualifications from colleges and universities are now falling behind more qualifications from the commercial sector? Accreditation-based training (to use industry-speak) is far more specialised and product-specific. Industry has realised that this level of specialised understanding is vital to cope with an acceleratingly technical workplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the dominant players. They do this by honing in on the skills that are really needed (alongside an appropriate level of related knowledge,) as opposed to trawling through all the background 'padding' that degrees in computing can often find themselves doing - to fill a three or four year course.

Put yourself in the employer's position - and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Go through a mass of different academic qualifications from graduate applicants, having to ask what each has covered and which vocational skills have been attained, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and then select who you want to interview from that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

Many individuals don't catch on to what IT can do for us. It's stimulating, innovative, and means you're doing your bit in the gigantic wave of technology that will affect us all over the next generation. We've only just begun to get an inclination of how technology is going to shape our lives. The internet will significantly alter the way we view and interact with the entire world over the coming years.

The standard IT man or woman in the UK is likely to receive a lot more money than fellow workers outside of IT. Typical remuneration packages are around the top of national league tables. Because the IT market sector is still growing with no sign of a slow-down, it's predictable that the need for appropriately qualified IT professionals will continue to boom for quite some time to come.

Many trainers provide a big box of books. It's not a very interesting way to learn and not really conducive to studying effectively. Where possible, if we can study while utilising as many senses as possible, then we normally see dramatically better results.

Locate a program where you'll receive a selection of DVD-ROM's - you'll be learning from instructor videos and demo's, with the facility to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. Any company that you're considering must be pushed to demo some samples of their courseware. You're looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and a variety of interactive modules.

You'll find that many companies will only provide online training only; sometimes you can get away with this - but, consider how you'll deal with it if your access to the internet is broken or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It's preferable to have actual CD or DVD ROMs that will not have these problems.