Is a Recession a Good Time to Encourage Training ?
Category Management
CIOs are not highlighting technology skills for their new hires, according to a Society of Information Management survey (InformationWeek's Rob Preston, Does Tech Expertise Matter To Tech Organizations Anymore? ). The key point seems to be that for IT in the U.S., business and personal abilities are more difficult to find than tech skills; at least for the entry-level and mid-tier positions. CIOs are working with the expectation that their staff can be technically upgraded through on-the-job training, or with exposure to some formal education after they've been hired. But, I'm not buying it.
I'd like to throw out some numbers, but I don't know where I'd find them, or how I'd break them down. In the meantime, I'll rely on my direct experience as a former consultant and provider of technical training, as well as a variety of job roles that vary from IT Director to EDS worker-bee. Simply put, all people are not equally adept at learning all things. It's the management complaint that, "all I wanted were employees, and what I got were people."
When CIOs de-emphasize technical ability, it's an alert that they are simultaneously slowing down their project development. They are carefully husbanding their personnel resources, adding professional experts only when absolutely necessary. And, what about training for their current staff and new hires ? When the economy becomes stormy, training is the first set of business goods revalued as disposable ballast. Training is dumped along with many of the "comfort" benefits that everyone enjoyed. Say goodbye to the free gym pass, magazine subscriptions, the flex hours and conventions. Tele-commuting is a wash; some companies encourage it to lower office costs, and others ban it to better keep an eye on employee activities.
If you believe that we are in an economic tailspin that will never recover, then don't bother with technical education (except home gardening). Otherwise, this is the very best time to be skilling up on new technologies. When commerce starts to thaw, anyone who has stopped their training while waiting for the recession to end is going to be last in line for new opportunities. If your CIO has frozen corporate training, then show your initiative and make it a point to get certified.
Notice, I'm not talking about merely dabbling to become familiar with a technology. That's OK, but it's not really "learning," at a professional level. If I can't quickly verify that I have specific knowledge, it puts a burden on everyone else to make an assessment and evaluate whether-or-not I actually know whatever subject I've claimed to have mastered.
We've all been in the circumstance of feeling that we have the right skills, but no one else believes us to be capable. Without some concrete evidence, I'm caught in a self-defeating loop of having to teach, say, the CIO, enough about my newly acquired skills so that I can be judged adequately well-educated on my subject matter. Don't bother. Executive management isn't going to read over your work and check your answers. You think you've learned a new skill that deserves the attention of your peers and the higher-ups ? Prove it.
Certification is the most direct path for establishing credibility. Other options would be user-group presentations, publishing a trade-journal article, speaking at a conference, contributing to an open-source project or building a working demo-site. Anything that you do which involves a third-party approval of your new understanding will give you what you need.
You can do it. Now is the perfect time for skilling up.
Technorati Tags: Training
CIOs are not highlighting technology skills for their new hires, according to a Society of Information Management survey (InformationWeek's Rob Preston, Does Tech Expertise Matter To Tech Organizations Anymore? ). The key point seems to be that for IT in the U.S., business and personal abilities are more difficult to find than tech skills; at least for the entry-level and mid-tier positions. CIOs are working with the expectation that their staff can be technically upgraded through on-the-job training, or with exposure to some formal education after they've been hired. But, I'm not buying it.
I'd like to throw out some numbers, but I don't know where I'd find them, or how I'd break them down. In the meantime, I'll rely on my direct experience as a former consultant and provider of technical training, as well as a variety of job roles that vary from IT Director to EDS worker-bee. Simply put, all people are not equally adept at learning all things. It's the management complaint that, "all I wanted were employees, and what I got were people."
When CIOs de-emphasize technical ability, it's an alert that they are simultaneously slowing down their project development. They are carefully husbanding their personnel resources, adding professional experts only when absolutely necessary. And, what about training for their current staff and new hires ? When the economy becomes stormy, training is the first set of business goods revalued as disposable ballast. Training is dumped along with many of the "comfort" benefits that everyone enjoyed. Say goodbye to the free gym pass, magazine subscriptions, the flex hours and conventions. Tele-commuting is a wash; some companies encourage it to lower office costs, and others ban it to better keep an eye on employee activities.
If you believe that we are in an economic tailspin that will never recover, then don't bother with technical education (except home gardening). Otherwise, this is the very best time to be skilling up on new technologies. When commerce starts to thaw, anyone who has stopped their training while waiting for the recession to end is going to be last in line for new opportunities. If your CIO has frozen corporate training, then show your initiative and make it a point to get certified.
Notice, I'm not talking about merely dabbling to become familiar with a technology. That's OK, but it's not really "learning," at a professional level. If I can't quickly verify that I have specific knowledge, it puts a burden on everyone else to make an assessment and evaluate whether-or-not I actually know whatever subject I've claimed to have mastered.
We've all been in the circumstance of feeling that we have the right skills, but no one else believes us to be capable. Without some concrete evidence, I'm caught in a self-defeating loop of having to teach, say, the CIO, enough about my newly acquired skills so that I can be judged adequately well-educated on my subject matter. Don't bother. Executive management isn't going to read over your work and check your answers. You think you've learned a new skill that deserves the attention of your peers and the higher-ups ? Prove it.
Certification is the most direct path for establishing credibility. Other options would be user-group presentations, publishing a trade-journal article, speaking at a conference, contributing to an open-source project or building a working demo-site. Anything that you do which involves a third-party approval of your new understanding will give you what you need.
You can do it. Now is the perfect time for skilling up.
Technorati Tags: Training
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