Tales from Boot Camp

Remember those fast-track training courses that promised to turn housewives into techies? Well, LaTrina Wilson isn't exactly a housewife. But a couple of years ago, she changed careers from engineering to Y2K programmer/trainer after one such four-week class at Complete Business Solutions Inc. (CBSI), an information technology consulting firm in Farmington Hills, Mich.
Did I mention that she already had a bachelor's degree in computer science?
It seems all those two-week certifications come with unprinted disclaimers. Yes, they'll get you certified, but only if you fulfill certain prerequisites that will guarantee course success.
As a result, these instant techie "boot camps" aren't what they started out to be. None of them are molding nontechs into techs. Instead, all those Microsoft, Cisco, Novell and PC troubleshooting boot camps have become training grounds for the already trained.
At the very least, an "advanced PC troubleshooting course" may offer nontechs (with a prerequisite in hardware installation) the "foundations for other classes," says one boot camp call center agent.
"You would need other things in addition to these classes to get your foot in the door of a technology job," he acknowledges. "You will need certifications, college courses, more tech classes. . . ."
Wave Technologies International Inc. in St. Louis, Career Blazers Inc. in New York, Learning Tree International Inc. in Los Angeles and CompuMaster Inc. in Acton, Mass., all require pretty much the same thing: "prior technology experience, foundational courses, maybe even a two-year degree," he says.
So what are these boot camps offering? Windows NT boot camps promise experienced NT workers their certifications. Cisco boot camps offer the same for networkers with prior experience. And Novell — pretty much the same. In that sense, they are living up to their claims like, "Get NT-certified in 10 days."
"For the person with no experience, boot camps are worthless," says David Casteel, an IT systems administrator and graduate of NT School in Clearwater, Fla. "There was this guy who went to one of these nine-month college courses in the Microsoft track, and networking and then he went to NT School to get certified. He failed."
But failure rates are low, mostly because boot camps screen candidates to assure higher success rates, according to David Kaufman, president of NT School. The school generally takes only students with three years of experience in network engineering. Some 95% of NT School students fit this demographic.
However, for that other 5%, NT School has been known to take on lesser qualifications — "someone who understands NetWar