If we take all the I.T. fields ruling the world stage, this area has to be the biggest and most all-encompassing. It would take far too long to train to become an expert in all elements, & so specialisation is vital to some extent. Cisco & Microsoft are the 2 main vendors dominating this field. The software program side of Networks is MS's department, & the hard-ware side (routers, controllers & data switches etc.) is where Cisco mainly function. Security has become a big issue in recent years, which has led both vendors to move in to the sector in a big way. We should likewise notice the the greater professional use of WiFi these days, which is essentially wireless-connections and hard-ware. And lastly, two crucial & growing sectors within the Security market are Computer Forensics & Ethical Computer Hacking.

The vendor-neutral world-wide institution 'CompTIA' now offers perhaps the most familiar & highly-regarded independent I.T. certifications. Organisations like ISC2 provide 'Security' accreditations, and CWNP provide professional wireless-networking paths. Needless to say, there's a total variety of accreditation programs from Microsoft and Cisco. Mainly because of the range and amount of qualification routes on offer in this field, its wise to discuss this kind of change of career with an industry experienced expert. Without personally-tailored advice you might head off in a wrong-direction and waste a lot of time or money.

Digital (or Computer) Forensics is fairly new on the scene - TV programmes like Crime Scene Investigation could have made us aware of it. Obviously though the actual job in actuality will not always be quite so glamorous as the programmes might have us think! Even so, technological forensics provides an intriguing career for a lot of people right now. A Digital Forensics expert will find & explain digital-artefacts which are frequently utilised to resolve criminal offences.

Seated between Digital Forensics and Security, is the field of 'Ethical Hacking'. The Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and the 'Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator'(CHFI) are medium to high level qualifications offered by the EC Council.

For a lot of people taking a look at coming into IT as a profession, basic-networking could be the starting point. Before you are aware of just how a Computer functions & 'communicates' with other Computers, anything more is probably nonsense. If you already have good user skills, you will find packages such as CompTIA's A+ & N+ provides you with a very good grounding to set up your career path. Examples of these are included within the 'CompTIA' pages of this site.

What you choose to do next depends largely upon whether you would like to focus on hardware or software. For hardware, you are talking about 'Cisco' (CCNA/CCNP), & for software you will need Microsoft ('MCSA'/'MCSE'). Nevertheless, MS boasts a high penetration within the majority of network-environments, and so an in depth understanding of their 'software' is actually very useful whatever your specialisation. You can get additional certification details on this web site in the specific MS & Cisco pages.

Equally of course you could possibly fine-tune your Wi-Fi (wireless) skillsets with qualifications like the CWNA and CWNP, or continue along the 'CompTIA' track with Server+, Security+ or Linux+ .

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