If you're considering a web design career, then it's critical to study Adobe Dreamweaver. For commercial applications you will require an in-depth and thorough understanding of the entire Adobe Web Creative Suite. This will include (though it's not limited to) Action Script and Flash. Should you desire to become an Adobe Certified Expert or Adobe Certified Professional (ACE or ACP) then such knowledge is non-negotiable.
The building of the website is merely a fraction of the skill set required though - to drive traffic to the site, maintain its content, and work with dynamic database-driven sites, you will need other programming skills, for example HTML and PHP, and database engines like MySQL. In addition, you should develop a working knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce.
With all the options available, it's not really surprising that most potential career changers get stuck choosing the job they could be successful with. Therefore, if you don't have any understanding of the IT industry, how are you equipped to know what any qualified IT worker fills their day with? And of course decide on which training route would be most appropriate for your success. The key to answering this question appropriately flows from an in-depth chat, covering several different topics:
* What nature of individual you reckon you are - which things you really enjoy, and on the other side of the coin - what you definitely don't enjoy.
* What sort of time-frame do you want for the retraining?
* What are your thoughts on salary vs the travel required?
* There are many ways to train in Information Technology - there's a need to pick up a basic understanding of what makes them different.
* Having a serious look into the effort, commitment and time you can give.
To be honest, you'll find the only real way to investigate these issues tends to be through a good talk with an advisor or professional who has a background in IT (as well as it's commercial needs and requirements.)
Students often end up having issues because of a single courseware aspect very rarely considered: How the training is broken down and sent out to you. Most companies will sell you some sort of program spread over 1-3 years, and deliver each piece one-by-one as you get to the end of each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable - until you consider the following: What if you don't finish every single exam? What if you don't find their order of learning is ideal for you? Because of nothing that's your fault, you may go a little slower and not receive all the modules you've paid for.
To be honest, the best solution is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get everything up-front. You then have everything in case you don't finish as fast as they'd like.
Be on the lookout that any qualifications you're working towards will be recognised by employers and are the most recent versions. 'In-house' certificates are usually worthless. Only properly recognised qualifications from the likes of Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco and Adobe will be useful to a future employer.
We're regularly asked to explain why academic qualifications are being replaced by more qualifications from the commercial sector? As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, industry has of necessity moved to specialist courses that the vendors themselves supply - namely companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Academic courses, for instance, clog up the training with vast amounts of background study - and much too wide a syllabus. Students are then held back from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.
Just as the old advertisement said: 'It does what it says on the label'. Employers simply need to know what areas need to be serviced, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. That way they can be sure they're interviewing applicants who can do the job.
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