Students looking to start an Information Technology career normally aren't sure which route to consider, or even which sector to achieve their certification in. Working through a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is just a waste of time. The vast majority of us have no concept what our next-door neighbours do at work each day - let alone understand the subtleties of a specific IT job. Ultimately, a well-informed conclusion really only appears through a careful analysis of many varying factors:

- Personality factors and what you're interested in - what working tasks please or frustrate you.

- What length of time can you allocate for the retraining?

- Have you thought about salary vs job satisfaction?

- Considering all that the IT industry covers, it's a requirement that you can take in what is different.

- It's wise to spend some time thinking about any sacrifices you'll need to make, as well as what commitment and time you're going to invest in the accreditation program.

The bottom line is, the most intelligent way of checking this all out is from a good talk with an advisor who knows the industry well enough to lead you to the correct decision.

Some trainers still use the rather old-fashioned idea of classroom attendance. Often sold as a benefit, if you talk to a student who has had to attend a few, don't be surprised to be lectured on several if not most of these:

- Repeated long journeys - quite a distance away in many cases.

- Asking for time off work - a lot of colleges can only give availability during weekdays and often group days together in a clump. This isn't ideal for most people who work, and this is made worse when travel time is included.

- And don't ignore lost holiday time. Most of us have 4 weeks annual leave. If over 50 percent is used in classes, then there's very little left over for us.

- With the high costs involved, most training providers have to put on larger classes - not ideal (increasing the ratio of students to teachers).

- The 'pace' - classes invariably contain students of varying aptitude, so tension can be created between students with more background knowledge and the ones who need a little longer.

- Don't forget the extra financial outlay of driving and accommodation for the duration either. This can run to a lot of money - from hundreds to thousands. Sit down and add it up - you'll get a shock.

- Don't risk even a small chance of being passed-over for a possible promotion or wage increases while you're training.

- Don't think it's unusual for trainees not to put a question forward that they would like answered - just down to the fact that they're with their peers.

- If you sometimes live or work away from home, imagine the trouble involved in getting to the necessary workshops, when time is at a premium.

It has to make more sense to take classes at a time that's convenient for you - not the school - and use instructor-led videos with interactive lab's. You can train wherever you want. Got a laptop?... Then why not get some sunshine in your garden as you learn. Any issues that arise just utilise the 24x7 Support. It's never going to matter how frequently you need to repeat a module, on-screen tutors can never get frustrated with you! And remember, as a consequence, you can forget taking notes. Everything is already there for you. Put simply: Time and money is saved, you have reduced hassle and you completely avoid killing more trees.

Low level 'languages' like 'C' are widely-used by systems programmers - the present edition has advanced quite a bit since the early days and is actually now much more accessible. Programmers working on applications use higher-level languages, of which you'll find a whole lot. Every one has it's own specific group of commands & rules, plus some are suited to certain tasks more than others. Business database software, for instance, is usually written in 'languages' suited to that particular environment, whilst video games are generally written in low level 'languages' like 'C' - since they need to run as fast as possible. When you're writing a database application, it is irrelevant if your screen re-draws in one 10th of a second or one hundredth of a second, although with video games, it matters a great deal. Therefore, a database-oriented 'language' provides features which are designed to help make your job much easier - rather than strip everything possible out so that it can operate faster. You could contrast it to the big difference between a racing car and a family-estate. The family estate is more relaxing and economical, but the trade-off is handling and speed. For the parents and kids taking a long trip though, warmth, comfort and a soft ride are far more important.

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