Need a Career Coach? - 10 Ways a Career Coach Can Help You

Best certifications for IT professionals: Is PMP best for you?

I recently met one of my best friends, who are working as a Director for training in an Information Technology (IT) organization in the US who came to India for vacation. During our meeting, we had an interesting discussion about the certifications available for IT professionals. As you may know, thousands of certifications are available in the market place and it is very difficult to find out the most important certifications for a candidate who works in an IT organization. He suggested me the list of best certifications that I mentioned below for IT professionals and highlighted who can go for the PMP certification:Project Management Certifications (CAPM, PMP and PgMP)Microsoft IT Professional certifications (MCAD, MCDST, MCITP, MCPD, MCSA and MCTS)Cisco certifications (CCDA, CCDP, CCENT, CCIP, CCNA, CCNP, CCSP and CCVP)Hardware, Networks & Operating Systems (CIW, CompTIA, LPI, RHCE, RHCT, SCSECA and SCSA)Programming & Web development (Oracle Database Admin, SCJD, SCJA, SCJP and SCWCD)IT security Certifications (CISSP, CompTIA Security and MCSA)IT Management Certifications (CBAP and ITIL)Project Management certifications help you to successfully manage your projects. Microsoft certifications help you to acquire knowledge required to perform a particular job role well. Let us say, for example if you take Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) certification, this would help you to acquire knowledge required to build, deploy, optimize, and operate applications successfully by using Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework.  Several certifications available similar to that I mentioned here from Microsoft for you to improve your technical knowledge in a particular area.Cisco certifications would help you to acquire knowledge required to plan, operate and troubleshoot complex network infrastructures including but not limited to LAN, WAN, Protocol, Switches, Gateway and Routers.  Certifications under the category "Hardware, Networks & Operating Systems" would help you to become a successful networking professional. The CompTIA Network+ certification would help you to acquire knowledge in managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, operating and configuring basic network infrastructure. This is a good certification if you want to become a Networking professional. Likewise, Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification helps IT professionals to acquire knowledge to configure networking services and security on servers running a Red Hat OS.Oracle Database administrator and Sun certified Java Developer certifications would help you to improve your programming knowledge in a particular area and to become an expert in database management.  CompTIA Security certification would help you to become an expert in system security, network infrastructure, cryptography, assessments and audits. The ITIL certification is getting popularity now. It helps you to learn more about the best practices for IT service management.  Certified Business Analysts Professional helps you to improve your business analysis knowledge.Now let us go back to our question. Is PMP best for you? The answer is it depends. It depends on where you want to go in your career. If you want to get into the networking field, you can go for CISCO and Comp TA Network certifications. If you want to become an expert in a particular area, you can choose the right certification from the list. But if you want to get into managerial roles, I would suggest you to go for project management certifications. It would help you to acquire knowledge and skills required to perform your managerial job.  Its reputation and popularity increased dramatically. Companies have started seeking PMP certified Project Managers to fill in managerial jobs. Companies have started paying higher salaries for PMP certified Project Managers. So my answer to the question is, it really boils down to your career preference.

Interested in Teaching Abroad But Worried About Being so Far Away?

Increasing Sales Through Objection Handling Technique

Handling objections is the most daunting task for any salesperson and if handled badly they can result in a lost sale and knocked confidence. The key thing to remember is that an objection is a demonstration of interest from a customer and if handled correctly can result in an increased chance of making a sale. There are a few key rules that need to be followed when handling objections:Pre-empt the objection -  If an objection is expected handle it in your pitch prior to being confronted with it, for example if a product is more expensive than competitors talk about it and demonstrate that it’s benefits offer sound value for money “While the product may not be the cheapest in the market it is the only product to offer (benefit)”, “It is a little more expensive than it’s competitors but the additional money is well spent as unlike the competitors it offers (benefit)” this is a great opportunity to use the all important Unique Selling Benefits. Use Suppose statements – Suppose statements are used to test whether the objection is real or not. If the objection is real then go on to answer it, if it is not real ignore it and move on. For example if the objection is that your product is too expensive then use something like “Suppose I can show you that the overall cost of buying and delivery is an economical proposition. That would be important wouldn’t it?” Feel, Felt, Found  –  A classic way of handling objections. First empathise with the customer telling them that you understand their concerns and how they feel, then talk about somebody else who felt the same way and finally talk about how after making a purchase they found that their fears were not reality. An objection should be welcomed and the opportunity to use this as a platform to sell should be maximised, if a customer’s concerns are answered effectively they have no reason not to buy!

How to manage a career in Administration

When you attend an interview for an administration position, it can be difficult to know how to present yourself. You often find a lot of people have applied for the position, and it can be difficult to work out how to portray your skills effectively. However there are a few simple steps you can take to make sure you are adequately prepared, and therefore increase your chances of being successful.             Think about what sort of questions you will be asked in the interview. Read the job description over again. What skills do they ask for? Note these down and work out how you can show that you have each one, thinking up examples where you have used them in previous jobs. If they ask for any experience, make sure you bring references, and work out how you are going to explain your responsibilities in your previous job. If you had any particular tasks assigned to you that did not normally go with the job, remember how you coped with this and if it taught you any new skills that would be useful for the position.             You may be asked why you left your previous job. Why was that position unsuitable for you? Think this through, and be prepared to explain why you think the position you are applying for would be better for you. Was it the company you worked for that made you want to leave your last job? Why was this? Was there something that this new position would offer that is exciting for you? If you are looking forward to the challenge, tell them this. If you are keen for the job, let it show, let your prospective employer know you are looking forward to working with them.             If you prepare yourself, and make sure you are fully aware of what is expected of you in the job you are applying for, you will be able to portray yourself well. The more preparation you do, the more confident you will be and this will come across in the interview and will show your prospective employer that this a challenge you are willing, and able, to handle.

Help! I Am Having a Career Transition Crisis!

Role of Netweaver Technology in Sap

In this present era, where each and every company is struggling to fuse a variety of heterogeneous environments and to maintain a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in their organizations. As a solution to all their problems comes NetWeaver. SAP NetWeaver is the most recent advancement in the mySAP technology, which was brought as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) shell which accepts the standard comments.Modularity is another unique characteristic of NetWeaver which makes it stand out among other software technologies. The knowledge engineer could more easily produce "digestible chunks" of sub-dependency networks or modules that helps to keep the extending over dependency network from becoming potentially inexplicable due to apparent complexity.In plain words net weaver is application and platform where web services play a chief role and is open for non-SAP applications and platform. To improve productivity and enhance efficiency it is used by organizations by making all the resources that are obtainable in an enterprise to work collectively. It is used by the SAP customers so as to bring diverse environments at single platform. Plus, it also enables customers to use the systems already existing without putting much investment. Additionally in the near future, the different corporate sectors and organizations should take a decision for common platform; could be IBM Websphere, Microsoft .NET or SAP NetWeaver.Irrespective of the selection we make, it is the one that will integrate all the three technologies. It attains the course of integration by incorporating all the available resources of the existing system and uniting them into a harmonized form. This information forms the basis of a total, focused and comprehendible solution as preferred in an enterprise. The diverse components that are present in this model are data links, nodes, dependency networks, and in a few cases, evaluation groups. Data Links function to ask for data about the real-world objects. The dependency networks play the central role in formulating the illustration of the problem. The function of node is to form the relation in between data links and the dependency networks. A user-defined set of networks is an evaluation group.The advantages include enhanced adaptability which means the adaptability of SAP NetWeaver towards the existing business scheme in any of the organizations. It would provide a heterogeneous environment, integrating different applications or databases and make open technologies like web services available readily to the user. It saves capital on unnecessary customization of existing business. This increases the return on investment. By using this IT strategies could be synchronized with SAP solutions. And this synchronization will make the system more consistent leading to better services, which in turn lead to economic benefits.  Instead of replacing the existing system it interweaves the resources like databases, net based information legacy systems, and would provide a varied environment for the user to obtain the maximum from new unified system.Unnecessary customization is also provided to the entire system. Furthermore, it decreases complexity and make the system more flexible to the swiftly changing business process. All these will lead to reduce the total cost of ownership.