Should you be aspiring to become Cisco accredited, but you're new to working with switches and routers, initially you should go for a CCNA course. This teaches you the necessary skills to set up and maintain routers. The internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers, and large commercial ventures with several locations also use them to keep their networks in touch.

As routers are connected to networks, it is important to have prior knowledge of how networks function, or you will have difficulties with the training and not be able to do the work. Find a training programme that features the basics on networks (CompTIA is a good one) before you get going on CCNA.

The appropriate skill-set and correct mind-set in advance of getting going on the Cisco CCNA is essential. Therefore, it's probably necessary to speak to an advisor who can tell you what else you need to know.

Ask a proficient advisor and they'll entertain you with many worrying experiences of students who've been sold completely the wrong course for them. Only deal with a skilled advisor who quizzes you to discover the most appropriate thing for you - not for their retirement-fund! You must establish the right starting point of study for you. It's worth remembering, if you've got any previous certification, then you will often be able to begin at a different level to a trainee with no history to speak of. If this is your first attempt at studying to take an IT exam then it may be wise to practice with some basic user skills first.

Many training companies will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance facility, to help you get your first job. It can happen though that there is more emphasis than is necessary on this service, because it is genuinely quite straightforward for any focused and well taught person to land work in this industry - because there's a great need for skilled employees.

Ideally you should have help with your CV and interview techniques though; and we'd encourage all students to update their CV the day they start training - don't procrastinate and leave it till you've finished your exams. Having the possibility of an interview is more than not being known. Often junior support roles are given to students in the early stages of their course. If you'd like to get employment in your home town, then you'll probably find that a specialist locally based employment agency might be of more use than some national concern, due to the fact that they're going to know what's available near you.

To bottom line it, if you put as much hard work into securing your first IT position as into studying, you're not going to hit many challenges. Some students bizarrely spend hundreds of hours on their training and studies and do nothing more once qualified and seem to suppose that interviewers know they're there.

Ensure all your certifications are current and commercially required - forget courses which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you'd printed it yourself). All the major commercial players like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA have globally renowned skills courses. These big-hitters will make your CV stand-out.

If you forget everything else - then just remember this: Always get full 24x7 support from professional instructors. You'll definitely experience problems if you don't follow this rule rigidly. Try and find training where you can receive help at any time of the day or night (even 1am on Sunday morning!) Make sure it's always direct access to tutors, and not a message system as this will slow you down - waiting for tutors to call you back when it's convenient for them.

Keep your eyes open for colleges that utilise many support facilities from around the world. These should be integrated to enable simple one-stop access together with 24 hours-a-day access, when it suits you, with the minimum of hassle. If you accept anything less than support round-the-clock, you'll regret it. It may be that you don't use it throughout the night, but consider weekends, late evenings or early mornings.

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