Training 101

Everyone in IT needs training. It's a fact of this business, which is built primarily on changing the environment to generate revenue, gain a competitive edge, or just meet the needs of the folks in suits and ties. Whether you build software or support the factory that cuts veneers from logs, your IT world is most likely always changing. The days of a set in stone group of technology tools are long gone with product cycles shrinking in software and hardware and official support disappearing on a regular basis, we always need to upgrade.

This is especially true in the SQL Server world. There are a few v6.5 servers out there, but they're the minority. Even v7.0 servers are disappearing and support from Microsoft will be completely gone in 5 years. Regular support ended at the end of last year and if you still need help, you're paying. Probably enough to warrant upgrading to 2000 or 2005.

We've mentioned that in the summer of 2006 we're opening a training center, but this isn't a plug for that center. Rather it's more of the reasoning why we decided to open a center. Whether you choose to let us train you at our center or not, you still need training.

Heck, the reason most of you are reading this is you come to SQLServerCentral.com on a regular basis to learn something!

Pick Your Poison

Everyone learns different. It's a fact, and one that our elementary and secondary schools don't do a good job of recognizing. There are lots of you that excelled at school and enjoyed the lecture/homework/test cycle. I was one of those and thrived on the challenge.

Others struggled in comprehending or even staying awake as facts, figures, and useless bits of knowledge were flung through the ether at you. You might have preferred studying a book, getting your hands dirty in some subject by actually practicing something, or if you're young enough, surfing the Internet to glean knowledge at your own pace.

The point to this is that while you do need to keep learning, you need to choose a method that works for you (If you aren't convinced you need to keep learning, I'd love to hear arguments in the discussion for this article). There are a variety of means of learning and I'll talk about each one a little below along with some arguments for your manager to shake the funds free.

Books

Really I mean printed material here, whether that's books, magazines, or some other type of material. These are the lowest cost items you can get for your team and they're easily shared. The downside is employees don't often take advantage of the materials and actual learn something. And your boss will easily see these materials as a waste of time if you are sitting there reading on work time.

I don't agree with that, and there are a few ways to get these resources. First push the cost. A dozen books can easily be $1000 in the technical world. However you don't ask for $1000; instead you ask for a book a month. It's $50-60 in the US, probably more overseas, but that's way less expensive than any one class or conference. Be sure you emphasize that this is a very budget-friendly way of training.

Second you need to use the book. That means two things and the first one if obvious: read the book. Not necessarily every word, or even most chapters, but read the ones that are useful or interesting and can be applied to your job. If you're a SQL Server DBA, picking up Oracle PL/SQL Fundamentals is a sign you're not happy with SQL Server and are looking for something else. Be sure that you pick books relevant to your current job and spend time going through the material, paying attention to how you might use what you've learned.

The other thing with using the book is to be sure you point out to your boss what you've learned and how it's applied to your job. Just like you want to hear that something you built was used, appreciated, and valuable, your boss wants to know that the resource helped you. As an example, I've grabbed books on ASP before as part of my job. Not directly related to me SQL Server work, but when I showed my boss how I structured a report on the servers that was available for the DBAs, that expense was justified.

Now finding time for learning is tough. Almost every boss I've had is willing to give some work time up, but not 2 weeks solid of reading a text and trying out examples. Be reasonable here and ask for a low amount, 4 hours a week. Less than 1 hour a day. Be sure you phrase it like that rather than 10% of your work week 🙂

I would recommend putting specific study time on your calendar and mark it as busy. The best way to wisely use this time is to shut your door or grab a small conference room to prevent distractions. In addition to work time, commit to giving up an equal amount of time outside of the office. Split it up into 2-3 sessions during the week if you've got the busy family life, but make the same commitment to your career that your boss gives you.

If your boss isn't convinced by your arguments, I'd point out that these resources can be shared with colleagues. Other developers or DBAs can take advantage of the same resources to learn or just look something up. Plus shared experiences like reading the same book can lead to better communication and even brainstorming among everyone.

Magazines should be easier to get than books with the same benefits. They're cheaper and having 3-4 or more subscriptions for different magazines gives you access to a wide variety of topics. Don't feel you have to read every article in every issue, however. Pick and choose those that interest you or are relevant. Try out some of the samples and see if you can incorporate the ideas into your environment.

Many of these same arguments apply for the next sections, so I'll just reference back here as well.

MSDN/Technet Events

In most major cities Microsoft has a presence and with that presence they put on MSDN/Technet events. If you're not close to a Microsoft office this doesn't apply, but for the rest of you, this is a great learning opportunity. These events are free and on a great many topics. You can search for some here: Microsoft Events.

There are two types of events, live and webcast events. I'll look at live events first and the web stuff afterwards. Now most of these live events are short, 1 hour or so in length, and I've found there's a decent percentage of marketing. Not that I'm telling you to arrive late, but the beginning of most of these I haven't found to be that useful.

To me, these events are almost like mini-conferences where you can hear the questions others ask and even ask your own of the speaker. These are the most valuable times and you can really learn something here. I like these events and be sure you provide feedback for more demos/code/real content, not marketing. The same thing as with books applies; show your boss you learned something.

For the web and remote events, these are ok, but I don't learn well with them and they contain too general an overview of a topic most of the time. With the number they're doing, I'm not sure why this is the case, but if you like these and need a higher level on a particular topic, they're not bad. Be sure you schedule the time as busy and get to a quite place, get headphones, close your door, etc.

The investment here is time and that's something you have to get from your boss. I recommend emphasizing the low cost of the event, which is free, and there's always the chance for learning. However the return is usually low and this is a good supplemental type of training, maybe 6-10 times a year.

Classroom Training

Most IT people go to some type of classroom training at some point in their life. It's the way most people get certified and there are some good classes out there. However I've seen lots of instructors that weren't knowledgeable about the topics they teach. Or they are horrible presenters. This puts you in a bind. You can find someone that is really knowledgeable, and likely doing this as a second job or to fill in from consulting time, but they might not be a great speaker or not be prepared. There are a few professionals that do it well, Kalen Delaney in the SQL world, Mark Minasi in the Windows world, and a few others. I'm not trying to leave anyone out, but I've seen these folks and they're knowledgeable and good speakers.

The Microsoft curriculum is well put together, but it's limited. It focuses on what the exam tests and provides good overviews of the product without really applying things to the real world. I'll be honest, I haven't been in an Microsoft ATEC class in about 3 years, but it wasn't great and the instructor was a professional teacher, able to deliver the content, but not answer out of the box questions.

In terms of classroom training, it's safe and from the curriculum, you will get a good idea of what you will learn. If you need to get certified, the MS ATECs will help. If you're looking to further your career and get better at coding/administering/whatever, you probably want a custom class.

There are a few ways to get these. If your company is large enough, consider getting colleagues to jointly petition to spend the $15k or so for an instructor to come to your location. This is the best way since you can somewhat dictate how the class will flow with your questions and focus the expert in on what your group needs to know. For most of us, this isn't an option.

The other custom classes are available from various groups around the country. A few of the SQL folks that offer classes are Scalability Experts, Solid Quality Learning, and we'll be getting in the game soon. Our center will be in Orlando and we'll never cancel a class (weather related disturbances might be the exception). Not sure where everyone else holds theirs, but check them out as an option. If you really want to keep moving along, you'll need to get your boss to invest in this type of training at some point.

These options are expensive. The local ATECs are around $2k a class, but there's no travel. I expect that a remote class is probably a $3000-3500 investment and one that your boss will want you to realize value from.

You want to show you've learned something, as mentioned above, but to get this type of funding, you probably need to target a specific class and show how this directly applies to your job. I don't expect many SQL Server DBAs to get approval for Java Bean training, but a High Availability or Integration Services class makes sense if you use those features. So look for classes that apply to your job and make that the primary focus of your argument for attending.

The cost will be an issue, so you may only get this type of training every other year, but I think that you should lobby for at least that level of funding. Make it important to your boss because it's important to you to keep learning. A few of the techniques that you can use to justify the cost:

• Retention - In addition to you wanting to stay because you keep learning, consider offering to remain with the company for another year. If you leave early, you'll repay a prorated part of the class. $4000 isn't a huge amount, $333 a month, and if you find another job, you factor in what you owe when asking for a raise.
• Brown Bags - One of the ways you can share the knowledge is offer to do a brown bag lunch training session with others in the company. It will add to your workload, but it forces you to learn and helps to share the knowledge with others that don't get to go. Just like sharing books, this gives a greater ROI than just having you attend class. Be prepared to spend 10 hours or so getting ready for this, maybe even asking your boss to give you some of this at work.
• Targeted Learning - If you have a project, or see one coming that requires specific skills, target a class in that area and sell that to your boss. A specific goal always helps to justify training to management.

The last thing to mention with classroom training is take is seriously. It's nice to get out of the office, but it's not a vacation. I don't mean cram at night, but pay attention in class, work on the exercises, ask questions, and try to get some skills out of this class you can use. There will be lots of information thrown at you and you can't learn everything, but work on one, two, or three things that you want to learn well from this class and take back to your job.

Conferences

The best way for me to get some training is with conferences. Or it used to be before I got into the SQL Server media business and now I have to work at the conferences 🙂

I used to attend the PASS Summit as well as either TechEd or the PDC most every year. It was a big investment for my company, but I proved my value to them, learned new things each time that I brought back to the job, and it was a recognized perk for me. Before each conference I looked for a number of sessions, usually about 1/2 of the # offered, that were relevant to my job and I thought I could apply once I returned.

In each session I then took notes on how I could use this in my job, made sure to get a card from the speaker and ask a question or two. These sessions were specifically targeted at showing an ROI back to my boss. The rest of the sessions where things that interested me, sometimes not even SQL Server stuff. I've seen very interesting talks on DirectX graphics, custom Exchange routing, Windows security and more. I've even scheduled some downtime during sessions to hit the gym or just relax.

A conference is both a learning experience and a perk. It's partial intensive training and partially a vacation. Be honest about that. The need to get out of the office, recharge, maybe even away from the family are valid reasons for attending. They can help make you a better employee the rest of the year and I know that companies that give these perks often retain people longer.

Sell these aspects to your boss as well as show specifically how you'll attend sessions to help your job. You can do this by looking through the sessions and picking those out that apply and building a schedule. Then bring that when you ask for the funding as a justification of what you'll be working on. And as with everything else, be sure that you try to incorporate something when you return into your job. Even if you force something a bit, it shows you took something away from the event and made an effort to use it.

If larger companies you may not get to go every year, but again, maybe every other year you get to one of these events. Some of the things I've done is look to save money where possible. Don't rent a car and use shuttle services. They're expensive for a bunch of trips, but if you're to the hotel and back, a couple trips aren't so bad. You may also look at staying at a cheaper hotel, further away and getting a car. The savings may pay for the car and still save money. The important thing is to reduce costs. At most conferences breakfast and lunch, even a dinner or two are covered, so you shouldn't have a lot of T&E (travel and entertainment) to expense back.

Conclusions

I believe in the value of training and continually working on your career. That's one of the big reasons SQLServerCentral.com is opening a training center and looking to help further your career is that we believe in the value of sending ourselves and our employees to training.

This article tries to show a variety of ways, at different cost levels, where you can get training. I've left off the various web sites like this one since I assume you do some of that already and it's essentially cost less.

I don't think you should train for the sake of training, but rather pick something that interests you and furthers your career and work on it. Make the investment in yourself and I can almost guarantee that your boss will do the same.