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IT Trainer - 17 year gap - any chance

2 replies

MEgirl · 10/08/2016 14:52

As the title says. I'm looking for a job. Do I have a chance getting back in to the field with such a huge career break?

OP posts:
EBearhug · 11/08/2016 08:38

What sort of IT?

Not that it hat really matters - things have moved on massively. I was using Excel 5 about 17 years ago - current versions are laid out differently, have so many more features. Same with Windows - Windows 3.1 to Windows 10. I'm a Unix sys admin, and Solaris 11 is radically different from Solaris 2.6 which we used back then. Same with AIX, HP-UX, Linux flavours.

Also, training tools have come on massively, as well. You can do loads more with PowerPoint, there are tools for building courses like Captivate and Articulate. Training might be in classrooms, but might be online, webinar, interactive Skype... Blended learning is quite the in thing.

It all depends how much you have kept up your knowledge of the products you train on and training techniques. It's not impossible, but it might be difficult, so you need to assess what your current knowledge gap is and see how much work will be involved in filling it - you might need some training yourself to get you back to speed.

But, if you were a good trainer who could engage students well, please do try - not everyone in IT training is good at it and the people skills can make all the difference. You can learn the technical stuff. You can learn new techniques, but not everyone has a knack of engaging a class.

zikreetdreaming · 11/08/2016 17:31

I'm not saying no chance but it will be very tough. I actually think the bigger deal is the change in training. I dont know what area of IT but you could probably learn the differences fairly quickly.

DH is a trainer (not in IT) and the differences in theory and technique in the last 10 years are massive.

Is there a train the trainer course you could go on to refresh?

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