Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Training Value

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The amount of training that has been offered for companies that I work for has been all over the place. One company (it was a training company) gave me about 10 weeks a year of training. At the other extreme, another company I worked for didn't offer any training. Their explanation was that they only hired smart people in the first place and that they didn't need any more training. But on average, most of the companies I have worked for have given me about 1-2 weeks of training a year.

As a DBA, I don't think 1-2 weeks a year is enough to even keep up with technology, given that DBAs need to know the hardware, the OS, development, and SQL Server. I think the optimum amount of training is probably in the ballpark of 3-4 weeks a year. Unfortunately this is not in the budgets of most companies, but it should be. By not offering training, companies are only hurting themselves in the long run. Oh, I forgot, most companies only consider the immediate quarter and don't even consider the long run. My bad.

Brad M. McGehee
DBA

Personally, I think the question in the editorial is slightly skewed. I don't care how much training money is spent on my per year, but I do care that overall I get enough relevant training opportunities to ensure I can continue to do my job.

I don't think the amount spent on training should be used at all, except as a comparision with the cost of NOT doing it. Just because a training course costs a lot doesn't automatically make it efffective, and when you have a team of techies working together, the cross-pollenation of ideas and skills can sometimes mean a lot of the necessary learning is happening even before the courses are booked. I have even come across a few companies who set fairly generous training budgets, then use the fact as a weapon. "We've spent XXX on training courses for you. How come there are still problems you can't solve?"

I'd say the most enlightenment can come by looking at how decisions to train are reached. If your company integrates it into the whole performance review process, that's a good thing. If your company treats it in isolation, there's something wrong.

Oh, and for me, some years my company has spent £5k - 6k on training courses for me, some years it's spent almost nothing. However, the important point is that whenever I and my manager have decided some training is useful, my company has never said no.

Semper in excretia, sumus solum profundum variat

I'm somewhat debating this and a few more issues with myself.

First off, I'm allowed to take 1-2 weeks to lern myself stuff, but then expected to take some certificate. Now that probably means they expect me to be mange that as do I and thus some private time would be needed most likely.

Now my second issue I'm debating with myself is... my employer wants me to take certificate and study to get that on my own time only for this. I do however get books etc free and I get a cash bonus that depends on the certificate. Now I want to do this because of two things, first is more knowledge and the second is the cash.

But how about you, where do you draw the line, what is private time and what do you consider ok for a company to push you into?

I used to take training but now I just hire a consultant for a couple of days. My problem is that the need for training arises when I need to achieve specific goals, I have the option of spending £1k or so for a weeks training in which I get taught completely irrelevant (to me) things or spending £1.5k on a knowledgeable consultant who will help me get the job done and tell me the pitfalls - there's no contest there, I get more achieved in 2 days with someone who knows what they're talking about than I do in a week in a classroom.....

I do suffer from a lack of a breadth of knowledge sometimes, I think, but then if I learn something in a classroom that isn't relevant immediately I tend to forget it within 3 months anyway....

Well. I'm underpaid. Had no pay rises for two years. But I live within easy walking distance to work. in a wonderful location. Ospreys anyone?

Training. Had three days in the last two years - a microsoft course - which usually are very good. but this one was pants.... Mostly buy books amd self study. One of my colleguaes is taking a three month break in India to garner certifications.

Hello,

I am also taking a few months off to get myself trained up, as I have had enough of infrastructure and find SQL work much more interesting and enjoyable. I have been in IT for 10 years and have never received training, done 17 M$ exams every single one home taught, but there is a big disadvantage to this, generally I am always slightly behind on technology, I'm have one exam left for SQL 2005, but with SQL 2008 due for release soon, again I will be behind, I have had to take the 3 months off to get good enough at sql server to (hopefully) get a job using it, but I fear it may be difficult as its so huge. I dont even want to think about the amount of private time I will have used to get qualified at no expense to my employer, but I know its just something I have to do.

Regards,
D.

Gosh, I wish I could fnd a knowledgeable consultant. I have to maintain a broad remit, right now I'm migrating Crystal Reports to Reporting Services.

RS is brilliant (apart from the bits where it just plain doesn't work. Which is lots of bits). Lots of them. I have to do lots of "workarounds". The published documentation is double plus ungood .

Oh yes, I'm a consultant, and in the words of Sylvia Plath "Not waving, but drowning"

Been there, done that, good innit? Better than Crystal at least

As a general rule I try and dump all the joins back onto the server, nothing worse than hiding them in the reporting system, just doesn't give you any visibility at all. Aside from that the only other advice I can give you is swearing profusely generally helps....

As to getting decent consultants - I use trainers, I just make them do real work for a change, I know enough about my own domain to fill in any gaps in their practical experience.

oh - and yes, I can be bought Although I'm not sure there's any Ospreys round these parts....

Yes, both Crystal and RS have their drawbacks - you just have to try to get into the mindset of their developers and work their way. There are clashes - I can do things in Crystal that I can't do in RS. I can do things in RS that I can't do in Crystal.

But my users have expectations... And I deliver...

( and the charting stuff in RS is pants compared to Crystal). But it does the job.

BTW... I used to work with the person who wrote Crystal (Greg somebody?) A fellow Jackson practisioner