What could a trainee looking for training tracks certified by Microsoft expect to discover? Undoubtedly, training providers should give access to a variety of routes that cover the range of Microsoft certified training paths. You might like to discuss the job possibilities with an advisor - and should you be confused, then get help to sort out what sort of job would work for you, dependent on your personality. Confirm that your training is tailored to your current level of knowledge and ability. A reputable training company will make sure that your training track is designed for the job you want to get.

A ridiculously large number of organisations only concern themselves with gaining a certificate, and forget what it's all actually about - which will always be getting the job or career you want. You should always begin with the final destination in mind - don't make the journey more important than where you want to get to. It's not unheard of, for instance, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then find yourself trapped for decades in a career that does nothing for you, as a consequence of not performing some decent due-diligence at the outset.

It's essential to keep your focus on where you want to get to, and build your study action-plan from that - don't do it back-to-front. Stay on target and study for an end-result you'll still be enjoying many years from now. Seek guidance and advice from an industry professional, even if you have to pay - it's much safer and cheaper to investigate at the start if you've chosen correctly, rather than find out after several years of study that you aren't going to enjoy the job you've chosen and have wasted years of effort.

Sometimes students assume that the tech college or university path is still the best way into IT. So why then are qualifications from the commercial sector beginning to overtake it? Accreditation-based training (as it's known in the industry) is most often much more specialised. Industry has realised that such specialised knowledge is essential to cope with a technologically complex marketplace. Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe are the big boys in this field. Academic courses, for example, clog up the training with vast amounts of background study - and a syllabus that's too generalised. Students are then prevented from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.

It's a bit like the TV advert: 'It does what it says on the label'. Employers simply need to know where they have gaps, and then advertise for someone with the specific certification. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.

At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be proper direct-access 24x7 support via trained professional instructors and mentors. Too many companies only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually). Look for training where you can receive help at all hours of the day and night (irrespective of whether it's the wee hours on Sunday morning!) Make sure it's always direct access to tutors, and not a message system as this will slow you down - parked in a queue of others waiting to be called back at a convenient time for them.

Keep your eyes open for colleges that use several support centres around the globe in several time-zones. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface and also 24 hours-a-day access, when it suits you, with no fuss. If you accept anything less than 24x7 support, you'll regret it. You may not need it late at night, but you may need weekends, early mornings or even late evenings at some point.

The way a programme is physically sent to you can often be overlooked. In what way are your training elements sectioned? And in what sequence and how fast does each element come? Normally, you will purchase a course staged over 2 or 3 years and receive one element at a time until graduation. This may seem sensible until you think about these factors: How would they react if you didn't complete each element at the proposed pace? Often the prescribed exam order won't fit you as well as some other structure would for you.

For maximum flexibility and safety, it's normal for most trainees to insist that all study materials are delivered immediately, and not in stages. That means it's down to you at what speed and in which order you want to work.