Surviving the Recession and Preparing for the Recovery

Author: Kristi Dinsmore

April 2009

The best career strategy in a recession is to increase your knowledge and skills in order to increase your value to your employer.  This is also the best strategy to position yourself for the inevitable economic recovery (and while this won’t happen tomorrow, history shows the economy WILL eventually recover).  And the jobs of the future WILL involve information technology so IT professionals who can prove their skills and capabilities will be the early winners in the upturn. 

Increasingly, the fastest way to establish your credentials and expertise is through industry-recognized certification.  Certifications also give employees a competitive advantage with employers who have learned that a title and work experience don’t necessarily equate to actual capability.  Having a certification on your resume demonstrates both your ability and your commitment to maintaining your skills.   A recent study showed employees with IT certifications typically earn an average of $2,228 more per year than those without such certifications. 

Sinclair Offers Fast-Track IT Certification Training at the Miami Valley Research Park
The biggest obstacles to obtaining IT certification used to be time and money.  Training required a multi- week/multi-month commitment (time away from the job or lost personal time).  Until now, most higher level IT training required companies to send employees outside of Dayton to obtain the necessary skills and rapidly shrinking training/travel budgets have made requesting additional training difficult. 

To support IT professionals with their skill development, Sinclair Workforce Development has reconfigured its IT certification training.  Ranging from 5 – 10 days, these certification “boot camps” are designed to help participants quickly gain the skills and knowledge needed to successfully pass the appropriate certification exam.  Taught by experienced, certified IT professionals, every certification “boot camp” includes a voucher for the certification exam and Sinclair has a testing center within its Research Park training facility so students can move immediately from the classroom to the exam without delay.  

The goal is to provide an accelerated certification process for current and new IT professionals to quickly build and maintain required skills without the cost and time involved with travel. 

Maintaining Information Security and Meeting Department of Defense Directive 8570.1
As information security breaches become more common, IT professionals with security training and certification are in demand.  According to the SANS Institute 2008 Salary and Certification Survey, 81% of respondents with hiring responsibilities do consider certifications in their hiring decisions and 41% said certifications are a factor when determining salary increases.  Some of the certifications viewed as “very important” are Cisco CCNA and CISSP as well as Security+.

A major force behind security certification is the United States Department of Defense (DoD), specifically, WPAFB here in Dayton.  In order to have Information Assurance personnel with the skills and knowledge necessary to prevent attacks against Department of Defense information systems, the DoD has established baseline requirements for training and mandates specific certifications.  The training and certification requirements of 8570.1 apply to the entire DoD IA workforce, including civilians, military, local and foreign nationals, and contractors.  According to the directive, all "Information Assurance" personnel must have certifications to validate their skills by January 1, 2010.   One of the mandated certifications in DoD 8570.1 is the CompTIA Security+ certification. There are additional certifications required based on whether you are a Technician or Manager in Information Assurance.

Most contractors who interact with the DoD have a percentage of Information Assurance personnel who aren't certified. If you want to continue to do DoD business, the burden is on you to ensure you become compliant.  Add that to specific recertification requirements and you may have a significant need for certification training.

Creating a “hands-on” Networking experience
To support networking specific certification training such as A+, Network+ and the upcoming CCNA 1 (May 2009) & CCNA 2 class (June 2009), Sinclair has created a hands-on CISCO lab where each student can be immersed in the equipment and be able to work through many different network scenarios.  The lab can emulate WAN connections, fiber backbones, server farms, and even client/server and peer-to-peer configurations.  Students can make use of extensive hardware that includes:  switches and routers, cabling, networking, and the use of a Voice over IP phone system.

Each set of hardware is on a dedicated equipment rack shared by two students, and each rack is linked within the classroom. This allows for a robust, unique configuration where students can work together to develop a live network.   This unique environment is designed to provide students with real hands-on experience, not just theory. 

To learn more about Sinclair’s IT capabilities and upcoming open enrollment training classes go to the Training Exchange calendar in this issue or visit http://technologyfirst.org/events. To discuss training options for your organization or to schedule a tour of our information technology center, call Sinclair at 937-252-9787.