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With Stephen Wynkoop
Find out the latest news involving EMC’s ProSphere, Microsoft’s lifecycle plan for Windows XP and more.
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Take Control of Your Ongoing Education
As a follow-up of the last editorial, I would like to provide some ideas of how you can keep your skills current without relying on your employer.
Realistically, your employer is going to want to extend the use of software tools as long as reasonable. Upgrades are costly, and, let’s face it, we were able to get our work done with the previous version. So, unless upgrades save us money somehow, your employer should not be expected to upgrade simply to keep your skills current.
What are your options? Some of these tools are very expensive, as well as the training. Here are some things I have have done this last year:
- Review products. Frequently, if you take the time to do a review of a software product, the vendor will allow you an evaluation copy of the software at no cost. Be sure to have an outline of what you intend to do during your evaluation.
- Purchase your own licenses. I know this is expensive. If you are a US citizen, this may be a work related tax deduction. For Microsoft products, purchase TechNet and/or DevNet licenses. This grants you access to the entire MS Suite. You will have versions of software available to you that your employer may not be able to afford.
- Purchase your own Lab hardware. Again, doing a review of hardware may even assist you in the cost. You can generally get by with lesser hardware for many efforts. Sometimes you may want to look at hardware that is being upgraded, or even look at returns or refurbished hardware. You can even lease hardware, or purchase access to Cloud based systems.
- Do your own project. Reviewing the job postings on Monster over the last year it is clear that Data Warehousing is hot. Knowing MDX Queries, Power Pivot, Star Schema, Snowflake Schema, SSIS, SSRS, Replication and Parallel Data Warehousing have become BIG skills many businesses require. They want you to know them all. So, do your own data warehouse. Leverage your TechNet and DevNet licenses and find something of interest to mine as your own project.
- Java skills are always popular. Especially with the growth of less expensive platforms such as Linux.
- Object Oriented Patterns are techniques that are universal. Many of the techniques even apply to procedural languages. Invest in Pattern training if you work in an object oriented language.
- Learn Relational Database Design patterns. Learn to build Online Transaction Processing Database designs (Normalized), Online Analytical Database designs (Star or Snowflake Schema).
- MVC, MVVM, Silverlight, Entity Framework, JAVA, Struts, HTML2 , etc. are other big movers today. So, create a website as a portal to your data warehouse.
- Take advantage of the online training provided here at SSWUG. Just do it. Much of it is free. Some of it will cost you a little, if your employer won’t spring for the ticket. Even so, you can’t beat the cost. There is HUGE value in the SSWUG training, and we have excellent individuals who know what they are doing.
- Stretch yourself. Small platform devices are here. Smart phones and tablets are incredibly powerful. It’s time to learn how to work on the Apple and Google platforms. So, go write your own app.
- Write a utility, in your desired new language, you can use at work that simplifies your job. As it becomes popular, and others want to extend it, well, the company doesn’t have the software to do that.
- Volunteer time in an Open Source project. This is a great way to learn from people outside your current skillset.
Your first question may be, “how will this gain me access to a company looking for skilled employees? I don’t have real world experience. Won’t they suspect what I’ve done on my own?” Perhaps that may be the case. So, if you do your own project, make it a real project. You have an advantage over all your competition for employment in one respect; you personally own all the code you created. Nothing stops you from granting access to potential employers. They can see what you really know.
Why go to all this trouble? Because your employer may not recognize the cost they experience by not keeping your skills current. New projects come, and you are not able to handle them. You may leave simply to have opportunities to keep your skills current. These kinds of events are real and frequent enough that most employers recognize the need to keep their staff current. When they are not, then take matters into your own hands, and build your skills yourself.
Clearly this is focused primarily on a Microsoft Product Line. However, the principle applies to other areas of software and hardware. It would be really cool if many of you working with other platforms and software suites would write in with other training opportunities to share with our readers. Send your comments to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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