How to Get Employed in IT

The main objectives of Mindstream are:
- people’s successful employment with wages starting at $40,000 ($20/hour) and up;
- affordable training programs for general public with annual income from $12,000 to $35,000;
- intensive hands-on training (6 to 9 months) targeting specific jobs;
- practical training on real projects;
- orientation to satisfy both the market demand for the new experts and people’s demand for job.

Main companies’ requirements for hiring people, specifically in the industry of Information Technologies:
1. Work experience;
2. Practical skills;
3. References.
Companies seek to hire experts with the diversified hands-on experience. If you complete a course of academic studies, you gain only the theoretical knowledge, in applicable for the real-time jobs. Employers need you to work, do your job. They do not need your diploma or certificate - so you can frame them and put them on the wall. This is reality. And if your age is between 35 and 45 or over, and someone tells you to sign up to attend a 2-year college program... well, either they do not have your best interests in mind, or have no idea what they are talking about.
With a diploma, you may know how to do your work but in fact you have never actually done it. Your potential employers do not benefit from your impractical knowledge. Hiring you would mean loss for them. Even if they hire you at entry level, they need to spend time and resources (money, that is) to train you to do the job. Someone must be assigned to supervise you instead of doing their jobs. This is a double-waste of time and money for companies.

At this time in Greater Montreal there are no computer schools for general public that offer the entire set of those requirements. There’s no doubt that there are specialized educational institutions within the IT field, however, they are on another level:
- colleges and universities;
- community colleges;
- corporate courses.

From the above, community colleges are the most affordable. However, they provide only the "orientational" level of education, and after completion of such courses people have troubles to get the desired wages. Community training is informational and lacking the practical skill-development.

College education takes at least 3 years. The level of training is markedly academic. It’s unaffordable for many, and we can mention thousands of dollars spent to obtain a diploma. However, people right off a college bench do not satisfy the last two requirements as to work experience and references.

Corporate courses are focus mostly on people with technical background. In fact, such programs are designed to keep technical specialists up to date. Such programs are extremely intensive: from a few days to a few weeks. It’s impossible to get a theoretical practical education within such a period of time for people who don’t have a similar technical background. These courses are absolutely unaffordable for people with low to average income levels and are paid by companies that send employees to improve their skills and qualification.
Typically, a week (5 days, 40 hours) of such a course will cost somewhere between $1,500 and $2,500.
In 2003 10-week course cost in Step One, Inc. made USD$10,999.

Typically, there’s only one computer language offered in such programs. Besides, students are not offered any latest technologies. The requirements as to work experience and references are not met.

Technical Aspects

Along with the above-mentioned aspects , we should not overlook the technological aspects of computer learning programs. In Step One, Inc. and New Horizons, Inc., also mentioned above, a training program includes only one computer language. Thus, for example, if you want to learn another language you will need to spend additional 10 weeks and $11,000 extra, i.e. you have to spend $22,000 for 20 weeks. Getting a bit ahead, we have to say that the Mindstream Center offers about 28 weeks (about 6 months) for just $3,500 payable in monthly installments.
For today’s market it is far from enough for an IT professional to operate only with one computer language. Therefore, realizing that the Mindstream Center offers up to 10 computer languages and over 17 technologies in one course (see Training Program below), it is easy to see that this program may be a door-opener for someone looking for a feasible education leading to a fruitful career.

Internal Project Training: How It Works

From the very beginning of the program, students are considered ‘consultants’ with zero-level experience.
They start working on projects immediately, gaining knowledge and skills in the process. This is considered an "internal training within a consulting company" (see Training Program below). They start wiht empty resume building it gradually, line by line, as they advance along the project cycle. All consultants are supplied with the necessary equipment and tools, such as computer workstations and accounts, manuals and printed materials. The internal education is a paid program. The duration of the program is 9 months: 6 months on an internal training project, and 3 months on a live real-time project for a client- or partner-company.

Training Program

1. The course of the "internal project training" is a complete program for people between the ages of 20 and 50 wage-range $12,000-$30,000 and possessing minimum computer knowledge to become experienced programmers - incredible as it sounds. Our own experience as IT trainers includes over 8 years of teaching practice for people who having successfully passed interviews, subsequently became computer consultants with starting annual wages of about $45,000 higher. In three years, most of them step over $70,000 per annum.
Several graduates work now as contractors at $75 per hour and beyond (and if you want to calculate their annual income, multiply it by 1,950 working hours per year).

2.2. The program consists of full life-cycle of a training project from "ground zero" with
9 months (40 weeks, 220 hours) of:
- Database relational design and modelling (conceptual, logical, physical design and normalization);r /> - Database languages: SQL, DDL/DML, T-SQL for SQL Server and PL/SQL for Oracle;
- - Database development: SQL Server 2014 and Oracle 11g;
- Application development with Visual Studio .NET 2015 for Windows Forms Applications and business Web-site design and development using Visual Basic .NET, Visual C#, HTML/DHTML/XHTML, CSS, XML/XPath/XSLT, JavaScript, VBScript, 'classic' ASP, ASP.NET, Web-Services, VSS;r /> - Business application database connectivity: ADO.NET, ODBC, OLEDB, ADODB;
- Introduction to Object-Oriented Design and Programming (OOD, OOP);
- UML (Unified Modeling Language), SharePoint, and CASE (Computer-Assisted System Engineering) tools (Visio, MS Access, MS Excel);
- Crystal Reports and Reporting Services;
- Business requirements analysis, project methodologies (Agile, eXtreme Programming, Iterative RUP, JAD);
Plus: up to 15 hours per week of "tutor hours",

and
- 2 to 3 months (15 weeks – 200 hours) of participation in a live project for a real client company;
- active job placement:
   - resume assistance;
   - recruiters' referrals;
   - interview support;
   - professional references.

3. The course offers an opportunity to make the second round for free (i.e., somebody doesn't catch up with the course from the first time).

4. Classes are held twice a week - typically from 6pm to 9/9:30pm. Final schedules are discussed when the full group-number is reached.

5. 24 hours / 7 days a week access to the class-room and computers for project work and self-pace.

6. Up to 15 tutor-hours a week (when training support is available for the students, including Saturday).

7. Manuals, printed materials, course documents are available.

8. Tuition fee is paid in monthly installments.

We provide post-education support for our graduates.