In response to a growing number of reader letters asking about IT
education and training options, a recent IT Career Advisor (see "Going
Back to School? Train for a Career, Not a Job" at
http://www.itworld.com/nl/it_career_adv/06242002/) suggested that it's
best to invest your educational dollars with an eye on the ROI (return
on investment). Look for programs that will help you meet your
long-range career goals rather than those that promise to prepare you
for the latest and greatest IT job title.

If you think about where you see yourself five years from now, and map
out the steps it will take to get there (working backward from your
future goal to your present situation), a clear IT education and
training to-do list will emerge.

For example, a PC support specialist recently wrote the IT Career
Advisor that her interest has shifted from hardware to applications
development. She was assessing the education options that would help her
meet her goal, and had correctly intuited that given the college degrees
she holds already, a certification program would be her best bet.

The would-be programmer (who we'll call Denise) earned a B.A. in History
and later went for an Associates Degree in Computer Information Systems
after she moved into IT. In her situation, going back for another degree
would probably be overkill, while a good certification program would
provide a hands-on environment for learning her programming language of
choice (which happens to be Java).

Denise expressed some concerns that, given the current state of the IT
job market, perhaps enrolling in a certification program would be
throwing good money after bad. If she breaks the decision down based on
her career goal and what it would take to achieve it, she can get a
clearer picture of whether Java certification would be a viable
investment.

To review:

* Where she wants to be three-to-five years from now: Java
applications developer
* Where she is today: PC support specialist
* Education and Training Up to Now: B.A., History (liberal arts
degree); A.D, Computer Information Systems (degree centered on a
vocational goal)

A Potential Career Path (starting with the goal and working backward to
the present, detailing what will be necessary to make each step along
the way).

Goal: Java applications developer (will need to prove that she can
come up with valid business solutions and implement them in
the Java programming language; also needs to demonstrate that
she is as comfortable on the software side as the hardware
side; will need to develop solid interpersonal skills).

Help Desk: A position -- attainable given her current experience
and educational background -- that also has some

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