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Subject:Re: Training - who gets it? How useful? From:Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:25:37 -0400
> How many of y'all make use of such training?
It really depends. I'm on my own now as an independent consultant, and
so I look for free webinars and online tutorials as much as I can for
training, though I've always taken this route. I'm more of a tactile
learner, so I prefer an overview, best practices and/or tips/tricks
type of approach and then be left to wrangle whatever it is I'm
learning on my own, usually by trying things, making mistakes,
learning from them, and moving on.
When I was captive, in addition to this type of learning I would also
either budget for (when in management) formal training for myself
and/or staff else request it for myself. Depending on a multitude of
factors (timing, cost, location, phase of the moon) they would either
be approved or declined. I tried to keep the training requests to
immediately applicable topics and tie them to project goals as much as
possible to ensure they were approved. Once upon a time, employee
development was something that was expected, but as the markets turned
sour, training and such became an only-as-necessary commodity.
Oddly enough, most of my employers had preferred any conferences I did
attend be related to my job (i.e. techcomm) and not their industry. I
have only been to a handful of conferences over the course of my
career (maybe 6 or 7) but they have always been valuable. I try to mix
up the learning between instructor-led tactile training, conceptual
overviews, and of course heavy on the networking (sometimes bagging a
session or two to get face time with a guru in attendance whose brain
I needed to pick).
As a consultant, I've only had a client or partner send me to
training/conferences twice, and it was only because it was in their
best interest to do so. It was not a factor of my own professional
development, but of either drumming up business for them or
researching a topic that they were interested in learning more about
(which of course gave me that knowledge as well).
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