do you pay for training?

[chicane]

Your colleague got this whilst in or out of work ? Contractor ?
I'd like to add the Prince badge to my cv but can't justify a week without income and steep costs.

At the time my colleague and I were two directors of our limited company, contracting our services out to clients - which I guess would make us contractors, if not by the strict definition of the "contractor" term we use on this site.

We obtained the training through an organisation called the New Technology Institute, of which there are several dotted throughout the UK. According to a quote I've just taken from one NTI website, they're "tasked to ensure appropriate provision of advanced technology training programmes to support those businesses and encourage them to grow".

You might want to look into this further to see if you're eligible as an individual contractor to benefit from this initiative.

[snaw]

Not done a live training course in years, been doing my CCIE for the last coulpe of years - probably spent around £8000 so far plus some time off, including some online classes on demand which are ideal for contractors. Basically a whiteboard, someone speaking and actually having console screens up and showing you how things work etc. A hell of a lot cheaper than being there (about 1/5 of the price) plus you can play them when you want and retake the class again etc.

Also get live ones which I guess would be slightly better if anything given it's interactive (The companies offering these also record the live class for you to take again later).

[Shimano105]

Well after my last episode where I couldn't get work for love nor money I decided to make training the number one priority. AFter all we are skills based so without the latest skills you don't have a lot really. As I found.
Whilst I don't expect them to be a magic wand to finding work at least they give you some extra evidence of knowledge in a particular field.

My training will not be classroom led though, everything you need to know can be gained from books, websites and just doing it.

I have also taken to putting my study notes on a blog, again to have some physical evidence of study and knowledge. Couple that with some sample apps on your blog then I think it is a way of creating a 'portfolio' (sorry) of your work which can be presented to clients.

So I don't listen to the detractors, training is the way forward, innit?

[Numptycorner]

I wonder how many people here would go to a self taught dentist or surgeon.

[Cowboy Bob]

On the other hand, I would employ someone with let's say 3 years of experience and a solid cert instead of someone with 10 years of experience without any certification...

For me it would depend on where the reference to the certification is on the CV. If it's in a prominent "look at what I got" position, then the CV will go straight in the bin. If it's in a low key "on top of my experience I also happen to hold this" position, then I'd give the CV a chance.

[To BI or not to BI?]

For me it would depend on where the reference to the certification is on the CV. If it's in a prominent "look at what I got" position, then the CV will go straight in the bin. If it's in a low key "on top of my experience I also happen to hold this" position, then I'd give the CV a chance.

so you are saying that form wins over substance

[Cowboy Bob]

so you are saying that form wins over substance

No, I'm saying that if a candidate places certificates in a more prominent position than experience then that sets off alarm bells.

I'm not interested in whether you can memorise a whole bunch of stuff for an exam (which is all a certificate shows at the end of the day). What I want to know is if you are able to apply your knowledge.

[To BI or not to BI?]

I'd say you should look at the CV as a whole. If the candidate has X years of experience AND certificates to support that, too, it doesn't matter where in the page the certificates appear, does it?

[Francko]

I wonder how many people here would go to a self taught dentist or surgeon.

Well, you must admit that in IT is slightly different. I'd be happy to have a tutor at work to teach me how to do a specific type of surgery but 95% of the time I have always been the most experienced person on the subject (yes, even when I had 6 months - 1 year experience) while the majority of "seniors" in reality were bluffers who worked their way up by licking managers @rses. So after many years I guess I have become used to train myself only by myself (and yes, even the few courses I have attended I have found the instructor not much more experienced - he was probably given a couple of weeks to prepare for the course). Yet, I do believe studying for a certification is a good way to check your theoretical progresses (although, yes, there are exam crams, answers, cheats, and you can memorise some.... but that's what even dentists and surgeons do when they pass the exams).

[Cowboy Bob]

I'd say you should look at the CV as a whole. If the candidate has X years of experience AND certificates to support that, too, it doesn't matter where in the page the certificates appear, does it?

It does, because as far as I'm concerned certificates are irrelevant, it's the X years of experience that I'm interested in. If you are emphasising something that I see as irrelevant then the CV gets a lower "grade" in my eyes. Any candidate that is emphasising their ability to memorise a bunch of crap is (maybe sub-consciously) telling me that they have a lower abillity to actually apply their knowledge. That's just the way I personally read CVs, others may do it differently.