Do you pay for your own training?

[Wanderer]

Just hit The Bench after a 2.5 year contract. Been at the computer and the technical books for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week since then.

Agree. I generally only do training when I'm out of work unless it's something really compelling.

[squarepeg]

Cloud Computing is niche?

...

BTW - I specialise in distributed/cluster/cloud computing.

I've been teaching courses on cloud computing since 2006, but programming OpenStack APIs, building dynamically scalable backends on top of OpenStack, server migration, etc. is still a niche thing.

[nomadd]

I've been teaching courses on cloud computing since 2006, but programming OpenStack APIs, building dynamically scalable backends on top of OpenStack, server migration, etc. is still a niche thing.

But you are dealing with tight-assed Contractors here. OpenStack is Open Source and everything we need to know is here: OpenStack Docs: Essex
And it's not like most of us don't have a few PCs floating around the place to fire it up on...

Still, I wish you all the best in your training course venture; I just don't think CUK is probably the best place to start, in all honesty.

EDIT: And O'Reilly and others already have books on OpenStack available. And PACKT have one on the way soon.

[squarepeg]

But you are dealing with tight-assed Contractors here. OpenStack is Open Source and everything we need to know is here: OpenStack Docs: Essex
And it's not like most of us don't have a few PCs floating around the place to fire it up on...

Still, I wish you all the best in your training course venture; I just don't think CUK is probably the best place to start, in all honesty.

Well, we got a little sidetracked, but this thread confirms my suspicion that the IT contractors in the UK are quite picky when it comes to training, just like the IT contractors in other countries. And that's good to know, too :-)

Thanks!

(BTW. I wrote some of the OpenStack documentation. Nice to know that there are people out there using it.)

[northernladuk]

Well, we got a little sidetracked, but this thread confirms my suspicion that the IT contractors in the UK are quite picky when it comes to training, just like the IT contractors in other countries. And that's good to know, too :-)

No tulip sherlock. It costs us money to be away from billing to do it or we do it while we are on the bench and the cost of the course hits us personally hard be it through the company or not. A £2k course put against tax is still a hard hit to the contractors pocket. We have to be picky.

[nomadd]

Well, we got a little sidetracked, but this thread confirms my suspicion that the IT contractors in the UK are quite picky when it comes to training, just like the IT contractors in other countries. And that's good to know, too :-)

Thanks!

(BTW. I wrote some of the OpenStack documentation. Nice to know that there are people out there using it.)

Well, I think we actually stayed pretty much on-track, TBH.

My honest advice is to keep attending conferences, giving presentations, etc. That way you tend to pick up a lot of contacts, both individuals and corporates. That's usually the best "way in" for providing training and consultancy services on niche products.

What you have to realise for contractors is that, generally, we aren't going to take time out and lose money over a training course - not unless we are pretty damned sure there is some income at the end of it. And even then, most of us still prefer to get a lot of hands-on experience by doing it ourselves on our own kit. And OpenStack is free, so the barriers to entry for a contractor to self-teach are pretty much nil.

And as regards "paying work", well a one week search of Jobserve for OpenStack contracts yields:
No matching jobs found

And that's always a tough sell to contractors.

[cojak]

Oh yes, we do wish you well.

And I would suggest targeting the medium size tech companies dotted around places like Silicon Roundabout in London (literally a roundabout, the Old Street/City Road junction just off Shoreditch...).

And of course hitting the conference circuit where your potential punters hang out.

[squarepeg]

Oh yes, we do wish you well.

And I would suggest targeting the medium size tech companies dotted around places like Silicon Roundabout in London (literally a roundabout, the Old Street/City Road junction just off Shoreditch...).

And of course hitting the conference circuit where your potential punters hang out.

The startup circuit? Thanks for the suggestion!

[Sockpuppet]

The only training that I do generally is around legislation. For example I'm a DGSA (Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor) and a ADR Holder (Dangerous Goods By Road). Both expire after a number years so I have to retake them and you can't legally do some of my jobs without them.

Having said that it often amuses me when I drive down the road with these signs on it, you get some strange looks from the general public. What amuses me more is that its usually a load of smoke alarms (or similar) just when you put enough of them together they hit the limit that makes them a hazardous load But I'm not sure they're likley to cause a meltdown if enough people press the test button at the same time.

[Scoobos]

Removed advice that was here, as its just a bloody sales pitch.... GAAH!