.: Don't Be Left Behind: The Right Computer Skills Can Make All The Difference
Category:Home / Computers / Computer Certification
Kelly Dodson knows firsthand why companies value the ability to use computers and software. An administrative assistant in Kansas, Dodson used to keep her CEO's calendar by hand, until one day an important meeting slipped through the cracks.
That painful experience compelled her to seek training in the effective use of the company's scheduling software. And today she feels she couldn't do her job as well without it.
As early as 1999, the Progressive Policy Institute estimated that 75 percent of employees use computers in their work, and that figure continues to increase as computers make their way into more and more aspects of individuals' lives. Since just about every job today is connected to computers and software in some way, employees who lack the ability to use that information successfully are finding themselves increasingly marginalized.
The effects of this evolution for individual workers are real, and they show up most vividly when it comes to the bottom line. Research has shown that workers with the right computer skills can earn 17 percent to 40 percent higher wages than those without, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and California Journal. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Office of Productivity and Technology agrees, emphasizing, "It is not merely the employee having a computer on his desk-but rather having complementary computer skills-that causes wages to increase."
Commenting on information workers' adoption of technology, Laura Stack, productivity expert and author of "Leave the Office Earlier," said, "The people who succeed are those who take the time to figure it out rather than struggling each time, doing it the hard way, or taking too much time. Employees who self-educate themselves will experience a performance boost from using the full range of available functions."
That is to say, whether you're an administrative assistant, auditor or staff attorney, having the right computer skills can make a difference in your career and your paycheck.
So what can you do to get those skills? Dodson was lucky enough to develop them on the job, with support from an understanding employer. But without basic computer literacy, it can be tough nowadays to get a job in the first place.
The Web offers a myriad of courses and programs on a range of technical skills, from basic computer literacy to complex programming and IT training.
"Software training is evolving into a just-in-time approach," Stack said. "Many workers complain about the slow response from the company help desk or lack of available training. It's more efficient for workers to access self-help online resources, such as Microsoft Office Work Essentials, to allow them to find answers to problems they are experiencing in real time."
Microsoft Office Work Essentials is a comprehensive resource with occupation-specific tools in programs such as Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The site has hundreds of free templates, how-to articles, product demonstrations, tip sheets and other resources. Available 24/7 at www.microsoft.com/workessentials, it helps professionals in more than 30 occupations-including auditors, project managers, sales managers and human resource professionals-find tools to help them improve their skills.
"Local computer superstores and community colleges also offer inexpensive courses on many common software packages," Stack said. "The day I spent at Comp USA learning PowerPoint saved me much time and frustration of trying to figure it out myself.
Article keywords: Don't Be Left Behind: The Right Computer Skills Can Make All The Difference
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Doing a search at www.amazon.com will display a vast array of literature to read on the topic."
Whatever method you choose, one thing is for certain: Educating yourself in today's computer programs is a sure way to make yourself more appealing to prospective and current employers.
.: New Computer Certification Articles
1). Cisco CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: The HSRP MAC Address
To pass the BCMSN exam and earn your CCNP, you've got to know HSRP inside and out! Part of that is knowing how the MAC address of the virtual router is derived, and another part is knowing how to change this address. We'll look at both features in this tutorial.
We've got two routers on a segment running HSRP, so first we need to find out what the MAC address of the HSRP virtual router is.
2). Cisco CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Tutorial: An Introduction To BGP
When you're studying for the BSCI exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, it's safe to say that BGP is like nothing you’ve studied to this point. BGP is an external routing protocol used primarily by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Unless you work for an ISP today or in the future, you may have little or no prior exposure to BGP. Understanding BGP is a great addition to your skill set – and you have to know the basics well to pass the BSCI exam.
3). Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Distance Vector Command Review
Part of studying for CCNA exam success is keeping all these new commands straight in your head! And let's face it, there are a lot of commands you need to know in order to pass the CCNA exam and earn that certification. Here's a review of some very important distance vector and static routing commands you need to know, along with their proper usage and console output.
4). Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Keep Your Most Important Appointment
Imagine this. You have an appointment with a client to work on a server or router install. A few minutes before you're scheduled to be there, you decide there's something really good on TV you'd like to watch. Or you decide to go to the gym, or play a game, or do anything else except go see the client.
Even if you weren't going to get fired for not showing up, it's certainly unfair to the client.
5). CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Tutorial: The BGP Neighbor Process
Like TCP, BGP is connection-oriented. An underlying connection between two BGP speakers is established before any routing information is exchanged. This connection takes place on TCP port 179. As with EIGRP and OSPF, keepalive messages are sent out by the BGP speakers in order to keep this relationship alive.
Once the connection is established, the BGP speakers exchange routes and synchronize their tables.
6). CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: Server Load Balancing (SLB)
When you're working on your BCMSN exam on your way to CCNP certification, you'll read at length about how Cisco routers and multilayer switches can work to provide router redundancy - but there's another helpful service, Server Load Balancing, that does the same for servers. While HSRP, VRRP, and CLBP all represent multiple physical routers to hosts as a single virtual router, SLB represents multiple physical servers to hosts as a single virtual server.
7). CCNA / MCSE / CCNP Certification: Making Failure Work For You
Whether you're on the road to the CCNA, CCNP, MCSE, or you're on any other computer certification track, the odds are that sooner or later, you're going to fail an exam. It's happened to almost all of us, yours truly included. What you have to keep in mind in these times is that success is not a straight line. You've probably seen charts showing the growth of an industry or a business -- you know, the ones that go from left to right, and look kind of jagged.
.: Top Computer Certification Articles
1). Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: OSPF Route Redistribution Review
OSPF route redistribution is an important topic on the BSCI exam, and it's a topic full of details and defaults that you need to know for the exam room and the job. To help you pass the BSCI exam, here's a quick review of some of the OSPF route redistribution basics.
To see if a router is an ABR or ASBR, run show ip ospf. This also displays any routes being redistributed into OSPF on this router.
2). Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Variance And Unequal Cost Load Balancing
To pass the CCNA exam, you've got to know how to work with IGRP and EIGRP unequal-cost load balancing. You may not see much IGRP in production networks anymore, but you'll see a lot of EIGRP, and part of fine-tuning your EIGRP network is making sure that all paths are in use while allowing for varying bandwidth rates.
Using the variance command is the easy part - it's getting the metric that's the hard part with IGRP.
3). Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: Route Summarization
Preparing to pass the CCNA exam and earn this important Cisco certification? Route summarization is just one of the many skills you'll have to master in order to earn your CCNA. Whether it's RIP version 2, OSPF, or EIGRP, the CCNA exam will demand that you can flawlessly configure route summarization.
Route summarization isn't just important for the CCNA exam.
4). Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Setup: How To Configure Reverse Telnet
Occasionally, during your CCNA and CCNP studies, you'll run into a term that just doesn't quite make sense to you. (Okay, more than occasionally!) One such term is "reverse telnet". As a Cisco certification candidate, you know that telnet is simply a protocol that allows you to remotely connect to a networking device such as a router or switch. But.
5). Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Configuring An Access Server
As your CCNA / CCNP home lab expands, an access server such as the Cisco 2509 or 2511 is one of the best investments you can make. In this article, we'll look at the basic configuration for an access server and discuss how to connect to the other routers and switches in your pod through the AS.
Here's part of a configuration from one of my access servers:
ip host FRS 2006 100.
6). Cisco CCNA Certification: Defining Broadcast Domains
When you're studying to pass the CCNA exam and earn your certification, you're introduced to a great many terms that are either totally new to you or seem familiar, but you're not quite sure what they are. The term "broadcast domain" falls into the latter category for many CCNA candidates.
A broadcast domain is simply the group of end hosts that will receive a broadcast sent out by a given host.
7). Passing Your CCNA and CCNP: Configuring And Troubleshooting Router-On-A-Stick
For CCNA and CCNP candidates, it's hard not to laugh the first time you hear the phrase "router on a stick". Let's face it, that's a pretty silly term. But as those who have passed the CCNA and CCNP exams know, this is a vital exam topic that you must know how to configure and troubleshoot.
Basic Cisco theory states that for hosts in different VLANs to communicate, a Layer 3 device must be involved to handle the routing between the VLANs.