TechKnow | Volume #1 | January 6, 2009

In This Issue:
News: New Year’s Resolution Solutions
Education: Does Certification Really Help in this Economy?
Education: Let Us Vent about IT Stereotypes
Tips: Tech Toys

IT Jobs Resource Center

An informative IT career resource guide! Our goal is to provide you with the information that you will need to be successful in the competitive IT world.
www.cbtjobs.com

New Year’s Resolution Solutions

While many people are talking about their New Year’s resolutions, how many will actually accomplish them? As the bubbles fizzle out, so will their inspiration.

Well, have no fear, CBT Direct is here! CBT Direct is the answer to achieving your New Year’s resolution – while you’re still motivated to do so. 

Start out the New Year right by improving your skill set! Call 1-877-872-4646 by January 12th, tell us your New Year’s Resolution and we’ll give you 25 percent off ANY of our online courses!*
*Online courses do not include Boot Camps.

Here are the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions (according to About.com) and just how CBT Direct can help you achieve them:

  1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends
    CBT Direct’s online training for IT certification is accessible 24/7, so you can study anytime, day or night, so as not to have to miss precious time with family and friends. Plus, when the time is right to study, you’ll have the freedom to stay at home, sweet home.
  2. Get Fit
    Online training for IT certification from CBT Direct gives you a flexible schedule with more time for other things. And once you are determined to improve one part of your life, you’ll be surprised at how motivated you’ll become to improve the other parts, too. Exercising will also help give you more energy to study.
  3. Lose Weight
    You’ll gain more confidence by working toward your IT certification - and a better salary - with online training and therefore, your mind will be busy envisioning dollar signs instead of potato chips. Suddenly, some delicious, nutritious brain food doesn’t sound so bad after all…
  4. Quit Smoking
    Online training from CBT Direct gives you something constructive to do. You’ll love the “new and improved” you so much that you’ll forget who the “old” you was.
  5. Enjoy Life More
    Well, which is more enjoyable: being stuck in the same rut, or seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? Positive goals lead to positive outcomes…which lead to positive incomes. Certification - cha-ching!
  6. Quit Drinking
    Who has time to drink when there are more important things to concentrate on, like training for your certification!
  7. Get Out of Debt
    Certification will get you noticed for a new job or a promotion at the current one - certification helps you earn more money! And CBT Direct’s online courses are affordable on ANY budget, so you won’t be adding to your debt while working on getting out of it.
  8. Learn Something New
    Great idea. Learn something new with online training, get your IT certification and you’ll have something to show for it!
  9. Help Others
    The best way to help yourself is to help others. With certification through CBT Direct’s online courses, you’ll be amazed at your newly-gained super-power strengths.
  10. Get Organized
    With online training from CBT Direct, you’ll study for your certification to improve your tech “hard” skills, while you develop other important “soft” skills, such as organization, written communication skills, time management skills and even optimism (more on soft skills in a minute…).

CBT Direct boasts the most effective online training available today for both corporations and individuals, with over 4,000 online course titles. You have the flexibility to study for your certification on your own schedule and still keep your day job, night job, personal life – whatever it is that’s been preventing you from getting certified before. You’ll have a fine ’09 and achieve all of your New Year’s resolutions…with the help of CBT Direct’s online courses.

 Does Certification Really Help in this Economy?

Are you becoming numb to the doom and gloom of the economy? Well, here’s some good news: CareerBuilder.com is forecasting Information Technology to be the top industry hiring in 2009. Even still, you’re figuring there’s just nothing you can do to make yourself recession-proof, even with an IT certification. The writing is on the wall, right?

Wrong! Certification is even MORE important now that the competition is so fierce. CBT XPress Certification Boot Camps are becoming even more popular now that jobs are scarce and unemployment is at an all-new high. And it’s no wonder, since IT professionals can increase their salary by twenty percent or more with an IT certification! Take a second to let those dollar signs sink in…

CBT XPress Boot Camps have real, live instructors who know the certification material they’re teaching you like the back of their hand because they’ve written some of it! They’ve actually authored some of the books, training materials and award-winning practice exams that you need to study for your certification. Wouldn’t you rather learn from someone who wrote the material than someone who has just read it? Then, imagine instructors that have a knack for making the certification material interesting and that will talk to you as an individual, not as an audience of 40-some people. They also realize that hands-on learning on modern equipment prevents you from becoming one of those “paper cert” guys.

When was the last time you spent a few nights at a luxurious resort and spa? And what’s more - in FLORIDA? CBT XPress allows you to stay, study and sit for your certification exams at a vacation spot that many don’t even get the joy of going to on vacation. Granted, your main purpose of going to an IT Boot Camp is to study for your certification, but there’s nothing wrong with being luxuriously comfortable at the same time!

Speaking of time, you’ll save a lot by being just one elevator trip away from the classroom and lab during and after class hours. Learn more about CBT XPress Certification Boot Camps, or find out what recent CBT XPress students have to say about their experiences here.

CBT XPress Certification Boot Camps include CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security Boot Camps; Microsoft MCITP Enterprise Administrator 2008, MCSE 2003; MCSE 2003; Security, MCITP Messaging Administrator and MCTS SharePoint Boot Camps; Cisco CCENT and CCNA Boot Camps; and VMware VCP Boot Camp for certification at the luxurious Safety Harbor Resort and Spa in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Getting your certification is vital at this point of your career (and now, so is a resort in Florida, right?). But don’t just take our word for it. Check out TechRepublic’s article that lists “10 reasons IT certification will be important in 2009”.

Let Us Vent about IT Stereotypes

Don’t you hate stereotypes about the IT field? Best Buy even calls their IT customer service reps “geeks”. Everybody knows that by “Geek Squad”, they’re not talking about the guys from “Revenge of the Nerds”, especially since the “Geek Squads” have to have good people skills. In a brilliant blog on TechRepublic.com , the obvious truth about IT professionals is told: the days of needing “geeky introverts” behind the scene are gone. This calls for a celebration, right? The nerdy stereotype is disappearing, now all you have to do is make sure your skills prove that to be true.

Skills like being a team leader, working well with others, communicating ideas to end-users and top dogs alike, presenting, persuading and being fun-loving without snorting when you laugh (that’s all in good fun; we hate stereotypes, too) are now essential in your success as an IT professional. As ComputerWorld.com discusses in a recent article:

  • Continuous learning is an essential part of your IT profession. […]. Even the latest technical skills and credentials won’t guarantee you a spot on the most-wanted list if you can’t use your abilities to help solve real business problems. Well-developed “soft skills” such as problem-solving, business acumen and interpersonal communication can set you apart from the other candidates.

With CBT Direct’s SoftSkillsEQ online courses, you can study these non-geeky soft skills and practice them a couple nights a week and then show up to work the next day as the well-rounded IT professional your company has secretly been searching for. Just don’t forget to remove the scotch tape from your geeky glasses (this is exactly the kind of ridicule you’ll be able to avoid).

Tech Toys

Here are a couple of tech toys you can get yourself once your salary increases (go here to find out how to increase it):

Willcom D4 Ultra Mobile PC - It’s the smallest device with a QWERTY keyboard that is Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 capable, with a size of 7.5 by 3.25 by 1 inches. How’s that for short and sweet? The screen opens like a laptop by sliding and tilting forward and comes with 1GB of memory, a 1.8-inch 4oGB disk, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, microSD slot and Wi-Fi. It’s marketed by a Japan-based wireless company, so it’s also a cell phone. The best part is that if you have a problem with Vista (replace the word “if” with “when”), it’ll be easier to kick or throw.

Finger Drum Mousepad - How about eight different percussion sounds at your fingertips? It’s time to rock and roll with the Finger Drum Mousepad from Hammacher Schlemmer. You’ll play bass, snare, two rack toms, a floor tom, hi-hat, crash and ride cymbals with just a couple fingers. You can also put drum tracks over any song with a connection to your MP3 Player and record up to 30 of your own creations to accompany your favorite tunes. If you want to hone your creations without sharing them with others, just use the headphone jack included on the mouse pad. Rock on.