May 21st, 2013

What Has Training Done for Your Company?

Considering ROI as Part of Overall Training Value.



In determining what constitutes fully effective business training, it is important to ask a number of key questions:




1. Did the participants enjoy the training? Were they engaged, rather than grumbling about having to sit through a boring presentation/video?




2. Did the participants learn something? Do they consider themselves more educated than when they started?




3. Are the participants able to apply what they learned in their day-to-day job duties? Did the training make a difference, creating employees that are more organized, efficient, or otherwise better at what you pay them for?




However, even if you are able to respond “yes” to all of the above, there’s still something missing. The final puzzle piece that’s necessary for a magnificent picture. That critical element relates to the business itself: Has the business seen a benefit (direct or indirect) as a result of the training? It’s a matter of adding up the improvements and finding that the sum is greater than the total of its individual parts. When you put training under the microscope, you’re looking for impact – a measurable change in profits, revenue, errors, or other operational factors. This is known as a level 4 evaluation, based on the well-known Kirkpatrick Model.




So, how do you determine the benefits of training – training that amounts to a significant investment of time, money and effort? In actuality, that process is – quite literally – something that should be completed before the training ever starts. That’s because the only way to know if training meets your company’s goals is to have those goals in place before you press “Start.” When the company’s goals are identified beforehand, two things can happen. One, you can have the trainer tailor the material and/or delivery method to meet those goals. And two, if at any point you find that the training isn’t quite hitting the marks you need it to, there’s still time to make adjustments. Once the trainer has packed up and picked up his/her check, or after the last video has played, it becomes a lot more difficult – not to mention time-consuming and expensive – to double back and fix things.




So before you flip the “go” switch on training, be sure to take the following steps:




Q: Work with the training company to identify what performance measures are essential to you and your company, and ensure that those ideals are incorporated into the material so that employees will be able to meet the desired standards.




Q: Determine what data would indicate success in training. Determine the most effective way to collect that data once the training is completed – preferably a method that doesn’t require excessive administrative work for you or any other member of your staff.




Q: Determine what other factors are important in leading to a positive impact for the company. While it’s possible that some of these intangibles cannot be achieved through the training you’ve arranged for, it never hurts to aim higher – and ask the essential questions.


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				April 17th, 2013 
				
Who is Responsible for Ensuring That Training Does the Trick?


				

					
A common brain-teaser posits: If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? No matter what answer you give, the riddler is likely to respond with “How do you know?”


A similar conundrum often occurs with business training. If a bunch of your employees take a training course and there’s no one around to observe the consequences, does the company gain any benefit from the training? Again, the simple retort is, how do you know? Without the requisite follow-up, training becomes a waste of time, money and effort. In order to overcome this quandary, it becomes essential to help employees make the jump from point A (where they go through the training and, ostensibly, learn something) to point B (where they apply the information they’ve learned to their everyday work duties). This operation is known as learning transfer, and it is a critical step in the training process. Only by monitoring learning transfer can the people who arranged and paid for the training, get a glimpse into how well their investment paid off. This approach is adapted from the well-known Kirkpatrick Model – a system developed in 1954 as a means of measuring the business value of training programs.


Known as a level 3 evaluation, the process involves measuring whether employees are using their newly acquired skills and knowledge on the job – has the learning transfer taken place? – and, if not, why? When done properly, this sort of evaluation can be used to improve training and identify roadblocks. What is standing in the way, keeping employees from putting their newfound smarts into practice? It doesn’t take an extraordinary effort to perform a level 3 evaluation, or to incorporate it into a supervisory routine. In simple terms:


1. Start by observing performance.

For example, if the training outlined a new data-input method, are people following those protocols?


2. Next, gather information.

Talk to people – not only those who went through the training, but also the people those employees work with and for. Ask questions. Has the training helped? Are you still finding the information you were given useful? Is the training helping make you/your department more productive?


3. Finally, review your records.

In all likelihood, your company already keeps track of performance data, error data, customer satisfaction information, etc. All you need to do is go back and track the results. Go back to before the training happened, and track forward to the present. Did performance improve? Decline? Stay the same?


No matter what method of evaluation you use, the goal is pretty straightforward: You want to ensure that learning is transferring to practical application on the job. There are a number of ways to go about this, some of which should be considered even before training begins.


Trainees: A trainee, for instance, should perform a self-assessment before undertaking any new training. This employee must take an honest look at his/her skills and needs, and be assured that the training will be of some benefit. Moving forward, the employees needs to complete any precourse work that is called for.


Trainers: The trainer bears a major responsibility – notably, to ensure that the training is worthwhile. After all, there’s no sense in teaching something that isn’t going to provide any observable benefit. So the trainer should look at what the employees need, and should deliver content accordingly. Likewise, the trainer should keep others’ schedules in mind, and make effective use of employees’ time. This can be accomplished through adequate preparation; training should be informative and engaging, without dragging or feeling rushed. There should be time for students to ask questions, with enough breaks slotted in that everyone can stay on top of their game. In addition, the trainer should develop precourse work and plan to follow up once training is completed.


Supervisors: In a sense, supervisors should do what they normally do, just with a focus on training. This means selecting which employees will receive the training, based on certain criteria. It means developing performance measurements to ascertain the gains from training. It means conducting a pre-training meeting with trainees, and having employees who’ve already completed the training serve as mentors to the newest trainees. Supervisors must allot adequate time for employees to prepare, and – like trainers – should plan to follow up.


Managers: While not directly involved in the training process, managers must take the process into account when overseeing their departments. If a manager sees a need amongst his/her people, it is that manager’s responsibility to figure out a way to meet that need; an advisory committee can be an excellent way to brainstorm and find an appropriate solution. To rally the troops, managers should communicate the importance of training – and spell out what the new training course will accomplish, including the benefits to both the company and the individual employees. And on a general note, managers should allot enough time for training and follow-up, and should set standards for suitable follow-up.


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				March 7th, 2013 
				
Getting Started in Technology


				

					
There is a ton of great reasons to want a career in IT. Right now you probably know more than a few people who have done very well for themselves with a job in technology. (How many old friends have you caught up with on Facebook who are making a killing as Network or Security Admins?) Salary, job security, career satisfaction and stability are just a few of the compelling reasons to desire an IT career. But for you the burning question is “how do I get started?” You find yourself saying “I have the drive and the will to work hard and succeed, but I just don’t know where to start.”


1. Determine Your Personal Interests

You want to be happy in your career, right? There are many specialties to choose from in IT. Which one would suit you? Figure out your interests first, and then work toward fulfilling those interests professionally.


2. Set a Career Goal

Once you know what you want, consider how you’d like to achieve it. Do you have an interest in management, or would you prefer to work in the field? Perhaps you’d like to be an entrepreneur or a freelance technician. Determine an “end game” for your career and develop a strategy to hit that goal.


3. Find a Mentor

One of the best ways to gain experience and get your feet wet in the field is by working with someone who has already been there. Many large companies offer formal mentoring programs in which an entry-level worker is paired with an industry veteran to teach them the ropes. But if you’re still looking for that first job, or your company doesn’t offer such a program, there are other ways of finding mentors. Keep in touch with former bosses or supervisors from internships with whom you have built a relationship. Professional societies also offer an opportunity to meet more experienced workers and cultivate a mentor-mentee relationship.


4. Improve Your Soft Skills

People skills are an essential part of your job. It goes without saying that you need working knowledge of technology for a successful career in IT. After all, the basic role of your job will be working with hardware and software. However, it’s important to remember that a good deal of your duties will involve working with other people, whether they’re other IT professionals, customers or co-workers in other departments, In fact, even vendors realize the importance if these soft skills. CompTIA has even included them as a domain of their A+ certification.


5. Get Certified

Certifications are an essential key to getting work in the IT field. Not only do they compensate for lack of working experience, but the also prove to hiring managers that you’re skilled in the areas they’re looking for. Training for certifications can be done in months or even weeks instead of years you would spend in a traditional classroom setting. An IT certification may look like a simple piece of paper, but in reality it can be the key that opens the door to your new career.


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				January 29th, 2013 
				
Getting More Out of Your Training


				

					
It has been said that “anything worth doing is worth doing well.” And while there’s no question that employee training is something that’s worth doing – via online tutorials, in-person lectures or video courses – it’s not entirely clear just how well employees are being trained. This is not pointing out a flaw in the training itself, but rather a failing on the part of the organizations who arrange for it. After all, what’s the point of training employees if you don’t have an effective means of discerning how useful the training was, or if the employees gained any practical knowledge that can help improve on-the-job performance?


Think about how you were taught in school: Information was presented, and you were tested on it. Then, subsequent lessons would build upon what you’d already learned, thereby reinforcing that knowledge. Tests were devised by the teacher, and evaluated not only what you’d learned, but also how well you learned it, and your ability to put that knowledge to use. How can you be sure that employees are absorbing what they’re watching on video, or hearing in class? Well-structured online classes often provide the benefit of quizzes and labs to test student knowledge throughout, but what can companies do to make sure their employees are truly learning – no matter what training method they use?


The solution lies in the evaluation forms you use. All too often, evaluation forms ask about the training presentation – Did the presenter make his/her points well? Did the course move along at an effective pace? – rather than the training content. It doesn’t matter, however, that participants like a training course if they don’t learn anything. And ultimately, companies buy training courses to teach their employees, not amuse or entertain them for a few hours.


An effective evaluation – also known as a Level 2 evaluation – can be structured to help determine if learning actually occurred. In many online courses, students must pass a Level 2 evaluation in order to receive a certificate of completion. It is during this final exam that companies can determine whether students have the required skills and knowledge, and a mastery of the material, or if they need additional instruction. Companies can then extrapolate this information – which already indicates problem areas – to ascertain why some people are “getting it” and others aren’t. This approach is a key part of the well-known Kirkpatrick Model – a system developed in 1954 as a means of measuring the business value of training programs.


Here are three steps for ensuring that training and evaluations are truly serving their purpose:


1. Figure out exactly what the goal is. Determine what the training is supposed to accomplish, who needs to know the results from the evaluations, and what the next step – modifying the training, personnel decisions, etc. – might be.


2. Make a distinction between “knowledge” and “performance,” and make sure that your training and evaluations do the same. Just because someone has the necessary knowledge, it doesn’t mean that person is able to put it to practical use. To that end, you need to tailor the training, based on whether you want your people to know something, or be able to perform certain tasks. The former can be handled with standard quiz-style testing, while the later requires performance-based activity, such as labs, role playing or demonstrations. Performance evaluation also requires a customized metric, such as a behavior checklist, or anchored rating scale.


3. Validate the results. You’ve got your test, you’ve got your evaluations. The question is, do they accurately measure what you want them to measure? The best way to determine this is to compare results; the percentage of “passing” scores, and the scores of stronger candidates vs. weaker ones should remain consistent (within an acceptable margin of error) each time people take the test.


Ultimately, there’s no reason that training shouldn’t accomplish exactly what you want – for your employees, and your company. It merely starts by figuring out exactly what that is.


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				December 17th, 2012 
				
What To Do Once You Have Gotten Your Foot in the IT Door


				

					
Get started by reviewing how you got started. Most of you made a decision at some point to pursue a career in IT. Perhaps you’re a recent high school or college graduate. Or maybe you’re a professional from another field who has decided to switch careers. In either case, we’ll assume you started with no professional IT experience, knowledge or training. Getting started for you probably means working toward a job at a Help Desk. For most, all it takes to land a Help Desk job is some basic computer training and maybe a CompTIA A+ certification. At your first Help Desk position it may seem like you’re stuck at the bottom, but you’re gaining valuable experience and credentials you need to move forward and become a Network Admin.


Help Desk Technician


In your role as a Help Desk technician, you’ll be performing “Level One” Help Desk support. Your day will be spent fielding phone calls and support tickets for common computing problems. You may be servicing the needs for your company’s customers or for people within your organization. Your responses and tasks will be heavily scripted without much room or need for independent problem solving. Any challenging or unique problems will be escalated to more experienced Help Desk techs. In your extra time you should continue your training and earning certifications and credentials. Video training is the most popular way to learn for people at this career level because it’s convenient, easy-to-use and effective. Use this time to finish off your CompTIA A+ certification if you haven’t already. There are two exams to pass to earn this credential: A+ Essentials (220-801) and A+ Practical Application (220-802).


As your confidence and experience grow, start checking online job boards and websites for Level Two Help Desk technician positions. This is the next higher level, with a greater level of responsibility and a more extensive set of skills required. The positive side to having a career path is that you can proactively look ahead for positions. A site like Monster is an excellent source for jobs, but you may have better luck finding IT work on networking sites such as LinkedIn or IT-specific job sites like DICE. Now let’s go ahead and fast forward about a year or so to your next position as a Level Two Help Desk Technician.


Level Two Help Desk Technician


As a Level Two Help Desk Tech, you’ll have more responsibility responding to more sophisticated and challenging problems. You’ll be required to “interview” customers to identify the symptoms of their tech problems and to deliver solutions. “Soft Skills” will become more important to you professionally. Soft skills include the interpersonal skills that aren’t always associated with technology roles. As a higher level Help Desk pro, patience and communication will be required as you spend more time solving problems for frustrated customers. You will probably want to review the soft skills training sections of your CompTIA A+ training. Don’t feel as if you’re taking a step backward when you review your training. Effective professionals refer to their knowledge base frequently. Start pursuing your CompTIA Network+ certification. Actually, your Network+ training should begin as soon as you get home from taking your A+ exams. The Network+ certification is a perfect credential for you at this point of your career. Some people may ask “shouldn’t I get my CCNA after my A+?” We recommend the Network+ at this stage for a couple of reasons. The first is that the training is more relevant to your career now. At the Second Level Help Desk position, you’ll have more involvement with networking tickets and questions. By training for your Network+, you’ll learn valuable info about network topologies and protocols, IP addressing, DHCP and secure encryption. These are topics you’ll see every day. The other reason is that your Network+ training, combined with your work experience will make you a stronger candidate for your CCNA and will make it easier to pass your CCNA exam.


The next step in your career is to move to the top of the “food chain” in the Help Desk technician world. This can mean becoming a “Level Three” Help Desk tech, or a Help Desk Supervisor or Manager. Not all companies or organizations have a formal third level of Help Desk techs, so you will see lots of variations in the titles and listings for jobs of this caliber. Keep an eye out for job descriptions that involve escalated, complex problem solving and troubleshooting as well as some management and training responsibilities. At this level you’ll also begin to see differences in the management style and work atmosphere from company to company, so consider those elements as your job search continues. And of course don’t rule out advancement within your own company. You don’t necessarily have to look elsewhere for your next job opportunity.


Help Desk Supervisor/Manager


As the Help Desk Supervisor, you’ll be responsible for developing and maintaining many of the procedures and scripts you used as an entry-level tech. Your previous experience will be vital to your success and advancement in this role. Having answered thousands of tickets and reqs over the past few years, you’ll thoroughly understand your customers’ needs and the answers to their problems. You’ll be asked to keep records and do research to develop new answers to increasingly frequent questions. Escalation issues will become your responsibility and you’ll need a greater command of interpersonal soft skills. Your skills will be required to provide training and mentoring to new techs and for new deployments. You can expect to earn a bigger paycheck, enjoy a little more freedom and start seeing the sun on the horizon for your career as a Network Admin. An important thing to do is to keep up on the trends in the industry. Be the first to know about new technology and what’s hot in the industry. Being in a supervisory position will help keep you in the know, but you should also keep up on trade publications, message boards, blogs and journals related to your profession. When new technology like VMWare starts to gain heat, make sure that you’re conversant (even if you’re not an expert). Continuing your training now is very important. Since you’ve had a taste of being in the front office, you may be tempted to rest on your laurels. Resist that temptation! You’ll probably be in the Help Desk Supervisor position longer than you were in the other Help Desk roles, so you’ll want to accomplish more in your down time. Finish up your Cisco CCNA Certification and build a strong foundation of routing and switching skills. Understand shared networking, WAN and LAN concepts and router security and setup. You’ll also want to pursue your Microsoft MCSE certifications. Windows Server 2008 is currently the leading server operating system. In the next 24-36 months it will be replaced by Server 2012. Companies around the globe need people who are certified to run these new systems. Earning an MCSE certification is the measure of the most up-to-date and advanced Microsoft professionals. The MCSE certification can be earned in about 18 months, possibly faster. It may seem overwhelming at first, but if you train and focus one exam at a time you should do fine. The MCSE certification demonstrates your skills in Windows infrastructure design for job roles such as: enterprise systems administrator, IT systems manager, enterprise security administrator; systems architect and network administrator.


Your Resume Looks Pretty Good Now!


With some diligence and direction, you’ve built an impressive resume of work experience and IT certifications. You can demonstrate proficiency with hardware, software and networking as well as Cisco and Microsoft technologies. You can also show management, supervisory and soft skill mastery. A person with a resume like that is a very attractive candidate for a Network Admin position and a $60,000 to $70,000 annual salary.


When searching for a Network Admin role, make sure to consider your personal interests. Where do you want to live? If there aren’t many openings in your area, are you willing to relocate? More Network Admin positions are available in larger Metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. You may even want to consider going overseas. Your skills and certifications translate very well in countries like the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as many other nations across Europe and Asia. Using your online resources searching for jobs in these locales is just as easy as searching at home (although the drive to the interview may be a little longer.) When you do interview for a position, make sure to clearly show what you can do. State facts about yourself and support these facts with experience. Don’t just state “I have an A+, Network+, CCNA and I am an MCSE.” Instead, tell your interviewer “I have extensive experience in networking, as shown by my Help Desk experience and my A+, CCNA and MCSE certifications.” Employers have a need for a person who can perform a number of tasks. They can tell you’re a person when you walk in the door. It’s your job to prove you can perform the tasks. With the knowledge you‘ve gained and the experience you’ll have accumulated you’ll be able to put up a strong case to even the most demanding HR specialists and hiring managers.


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				November 13th, 2012 
				
“Re-Wire” Your Resume


				

					
In the early stages of a job hunt, your resume does most of the talking for you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re responding to a job posting or simply “cold calling” companies in your field; once you seal the envelope or send the email, your curriculum vitae becomes your only means of communicating with a potential employer. So what is your resume really saying about you? And, more importantly, what language is it speaking?


Imagine you’re on vacation in Rome, where you don’t speak the language. You would like to see the Trevi Fountain, and you need directions. Who are you going to ask? The group conversing in Italian, or the couple who are talking in English, your native tongue? Even if you’re a stalwart sort who wants to work on your Italian and is willing to fumble through with a phrasebook, it would be unrealistic to expect others to do the same.


That’s what it’s like when your resume is filled with highly technical jargon — except that you’re the local, and the HR professional is the tourist. Maybe that tourist speaks your language and will want to chat with you, but more likely, he or she will go off in search of someone he/she can understand. That’s why it’s essential that your resume be written using plain, easy-to-understand verbiage — because you don’t know who’s going to see it first, or what kind of impression you might make. In speaking for you, your resume should be charming and eager to please — rather than snobby and standoffish.


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				October 3rd, 2012 
				
LearnSmart Expands Library with New Training for 2012 and Beyond


				

					
Over the past several months, LearnSmart has made great strides in expanding its training library, and continues to offer individuals and businesses an extensive selection of titles in the areas of IT, management, communication and soft skills training.


Now celebrating 15 years of expertise and exceptional customer service, LearnSmart is pleased to announce its newest offerings, which represent just a handful of titles in an ever-growing list of exceptional skills and technology training courses.


A+ All-in-One (220-801 and 220-802)

Designed for students interested in obtaining the CompTIA A+ certification, this in-depth, self-paced training series teaches you how to work with PC operating systems, including installation, upgrade options, UAC configuration, and Homegroups. You will also learn to install, repair, upgrade, configure, optimize, troubleshoot, and perform preventative maintenance on personal computers and operating systems. When you complete this series, you will be able to: identify types and characteristics of PC components, including motherboard, CPU, memory and storage, input and output devices; assemble, disassemble, and upgrade PC and notebook components; and compare and contrast the features of Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 7.


Understanding HIPAA

In LearnSmart’s Understanding HIPAA course, students will learn the primary purpose of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), which is to protect patients from improper disclosure of medical information. In addition, health organizations and all partner organizations will understand their legal responsibility for proper handling of any and all information related to a medical or mental health patient. Plus, healthcare workers will see how they are protected – and how their duties are simplified – by clear HIPAA procedures on how to handle, process, store and give out information. This course is designed for doctors, healthcare workers and other employees/partners of covered entities who are charged with protecting patient information under HIPAA.


Coaching with Confidence

Coaching with Confidence was designed to teach the importance of communication, leadership, and a commitment to people as means of creating a plan of action and a way of thinking that others are compelled to follow. Further, during the course, students will learn that it’s not what coaches are, but what coaches do that has the most value. Coaching with Confidence contains all the essentials that people need to be the best coaches they can be – for themselves, and for their teams. This course is designed for team members, team leaders, and supervisors – basically, anyone on the corporate ladder – who is interested in improving performance, and boosting the productivity of their department.


Effective Delegation

Delegation is more than just clearing off your desk by assigning tasks to others. Not only does delegation entail teaching others the skills necessary to accomplish certain tasks, but it also serves as an opportunity to foster employees in their career training. This course shows the importance of delegating not just tasks, but also the authority necessary to complete them.


MTA OS (98-349)

LearnSmart’s Video Training Course for MTA Windows Operating System Fundamentals was created to help students – primarily students attending high school or a two-year college – prepare to take the 98-349 exam: Microsoft Technology Associate, Windows Operating System Fundamentals. This exam certifies that candidates have the foundational knowledge needed to take the first step toward building a successful career in technology. Topics include application and deployment control, mobility solutions, Windows interfaces and troubleshooting theory.


To find out more about these titles, or for a complete list of training courses for your department or organization, download LearnSmart’s complete training catalog at

http://www.learnsmartsystems.com/resources/training-catalog.aspx or call 1-800-418-6789.


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				August 29th, 2012 
				
LearnSmart named finalist for 2012 Tampa Small Business of the Year award


				

					
LearnSmart is honored and excited to announce being named as a finalist for the 2012 Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award. The annual award pays tribute to Tampa Bay area businesses of fewer than 250 employees that excel in the categories of History and Philosophy; Management; Operational Management; Innovativeness and Response; and Leadership and Community. LearnSmart is one of five finalists for the award selected from an initial field of 250 candidate companies. The award process began in January and will officially end Friday, September 28 when the winner is revealed at the Small Business of the Year Awards Dinner at the Tampa Convention Center. LearnSmart has served the Tampa Bay community since 1997 and appreciates being recognized as a finalist for this award by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.


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				July 6th, 2012 
				
LearnSmart iPad App Coming Soon


				

					
LearnSmart recently announced that we would be releasing an iPad App for our IT Training software. As of now, the App is completed and is currently in the process of being reviewed by Apple.


The LearnSmart iPad App will allow users to get the training they need directly on their iPad without the need for an internet connection.  Users will download their video training directly to their iPad giving them the freedom to take their training to places where a wifi or 3g connection isn’t feasible. LearnSmart has made great strides to get training into the hands of professionals when and where they need it and the introduction of this application will help us continue this trend.


We’re extremely excited to get the new LearnSmart iPad App in the hands of our customers who have been eagerly awaiting it’s completion. We will be sure to get the news out as soon as we get approval through Apples App review process.


Are you excited to get your hands(or fingers) on the iPad App? Let us know in the comments below!


 


Be sure to connect with us on Facebook or Twitter and keep up to date on the latest training updates from LearnSmart.


Looking to advance your IT career or secure training for your Enterprise? LearnSmart offers the absolute best training materials for technologies including CompTIA A+, Network+,  MCITP Certification, CCNA Training and more. The LearnSmart Cloud Classroom makes studying better and more convenient by putting your training in the Cloud and supporting compatibility with most mobile devices including the iPad 2, Android and many more.


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				May 29th, 2012 
				
How to Find an IT Job


				

					
I stumbled upon a great post titled “Back to Basics: How to Find an IT Job” which goes into detail on the ins and outs of finding an IT job in the post-techbubble era! I think the entire post is worth checking out, but I’ll be picking out what I consider the most important to your success in the IT field.


 


Social Networking.


Social Networking is an excellent and convenient avenue to create important contacts in the IT industry that can help land you the perfect job. Networking with key individuals can do a lot for your chances regarding future opportunities. Use Social Networks to broaden your influence and perhaps flex your IT knowledge. Who knows, maybe that next DM will be a job offer.


At the same time, expand your search methods.


Don’t just rely on the internet. Good old fashioned door knocking can be crucial in your job search. Not all employers are tech savvy or know how to post their jobs online. Take the time to look for face to face meetings for a more powerful first impression and to expand your reach.


Follow up.


The act of following up can set your apart from other candidates. It shows you have a tenacious and organized perspective. This can be especially useful in the IT industry, where many employers have their idea of a “typical IT guy”, you can show them you’ve got what it takes to make it in their organization.


Build your portfolio.


This is the “content creation” approach, that is effective in many industries and can be just as effective in IT. Creating content that can be shared, or is useful to the IT community can be extremely beneficial to your job prospects. Utilize social media to share these projects and you can drastically increase it’s effectiveness. Content creators are viewed as experts, so take some time to construct useful programs, code snippets and more and don’t be afraid to write and share about them.


 


Stay on top of trends and education.


This is probably the most important point. Anyone who has committed to a career in IT understands how vital staying up-to-date on the latest trends and, more importantly, certifications is. IT is a living, breathing body that constantly is changing and evolving at the hands of technology and other sciences that continually change how we use computers. You have to say on top of the trends to look competent, and you’ve got to get the most important certifications to stay relevant. IT Certification proves to potential employers that you know, understand and can utilize the technologies they trust to run their business. Many jobs won’t even give your resume a second look if you don’t have these important representations of your abilities. The bottom line: Get certified. Stay certified.


 


Be sure to connect with us on Facebook or Twitter and keep up to date on the latest training updates from LearnSmart.


Looking to advance your IT career or secure training for your Enterprise? LearnSmart offers the absolute best training materials for technologies including CompTIA A+, Network+,  MCITP Certification, CCNA Training and more. The LearnSmart Cloud Classroom makes studying better and more convenient by putting your training in the Cloud and supporting compatibility with most mobile devices including the iPad 2, Android and many more.


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