Reality Check for IT Training
After a few years in IT industry, most software developers or systems engineers wish they could go back to school and have some un-interrupted time to re-charge their brains. Precisely, they want to go back to a different school to learn new subjects, or the same subjects are taught in a way that is more close to the IT practice. Of course, this will never happen. The curriculums of higher education aren’t going to be designed to chase the fads of IT industry, and doing so won’t help professors’ career either. The closest thing to what IT professionals want is training boot camp, an off-site setting where software developers or system engineers will learn new technology or revisit what you’ve learned on the job without worrying about to beat the project deadlines one after another.
IT boot camps are closely related to IT certifications. For instance, a Microsoft training boot camp is for those who want to pass Microsoft certifications. Companies don’t encourage their IT staff to pass any IT certifications as long they think they can get their job done. IT consulting firms are an exception for this. Consulting companies won’t even hire you if you don’t have certain IT certifications. If a IT degree shows you’ve mastered the principles of information technology, a IT certification demonstrates that you actually know how to apply the principles in the real world, or you can get things done without knowing any principles.
Most IT boot camps or training programs are for computer hardware - CCNP boot camp, or MCSA boot camp. Subjects related to computer software don’t work that well, on the other hand. For hardware, there’s often a clear step-by-step procedures to do the configuration or trouble shooting. For software, developers have their styles of writing code. The syntax part can be easily self-taught from book. Wordpress.org went even far to say “Code is Poetry”.