Anyone who has worked in the IT department anywhere, even if it was only at the lowest level, you know how important certifications are. A lot of times, job advancement is based on what certifications you have. That’s a lot of the reason that people also end up leaving the IT industry. Why? Because they don’t have the time, money or ability to get their Cisco certification. Or at least that’s what they seem to think.

The thing is, it’s not really as hard as most people make it out to be. You have to have some discipline and the ability to learn. You don’t always have to take classes in order to learn, in fact a lot of people learn better without them. All you have to do is take the exams and pass them. You can decide today that you want to take the exam tomorrow. It’s more difficult that way,

I know that I’d eventually like to get my certifications. I would have had them years ago, but I left the IT industry behind when I left college. There were too many reasons to count that made me do something silly. I should have considered it more before making a stupid decision. Rather than making a decent living as an IT professional, I’m making very little as a writer. I love my life, but I think that I’d be a lot happier if I had followed my original path.

Don’t let your chance pass you by.

My husband and I were talking about education the other day. He was looking at going to college, but the problem is, he would still have to work full-time at the same time. I was thinking that if he truly wanted to explore further education, he should get into an online degree program.

It would be easier to work on schooling stuff on days off and at night after work, plus it would give him an advantage of not having to sit in a classroom all the time. I found that to be the most annoying part of college. The classroom setting, especially when there were several hours in between my classes and nothing of any real interest to do on campus in between.

I’ve even been thinking about going back to school and getting involved in an online MBA program. It certainly has to be cheaper, since you can “go” to any school that offers online programs and not be stuck with the schools that are in your local area.

Regis University is definitely a great choice to look at, for sure. I just wish that this had been an option for me when I was first going to school. Perhaps I would have been a better student.