Studying While At Work

Curious, has anyone asked to have time during the work day to study for a certification? The reason I ask is because I was at an interview a little while back and the manager interviewing me said he gave an hour a day for his employees to study if they chose to.

I haven't had another job where a manager said that and wondering if anyone else has got that or has asked for that before?

I realize some people have slow jobs and have time, but mine is pretty well paced, nothing stressful or anything. But I don't have time to set aside an hour and just focus on studying. I work on a team with 3 others and it is never really too busy.

(I didn't get the job because they said funds for the position fell through, interview went really well and he actually said I was their top candidate... Was never 100% if I believed that but it does seem like a nice way to let someone down)

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Comments

aftereffector

Work pays me to work - studying happens on my own time. However, if my work self-development plan happens to align with my studying goals, I can sometimes do both at once.

doctorlexus

I miss working at Google. On Friday afternoons they paid us to drink beer. Could have studied, too, I guess.

NetworkNewb

aftereffector wrote: »

Work pays me to work

Well that just crazy talk to me. I guess we can end this thread...

No but really, the only reason I even thought of the idea was because that manager told me he allowed his employees to do it and wondering if anyone else does it.

networker050184

As long as my projects are finished on time my boss doesn't care what I'm doing. Learning is definitely encouraged. Besides no one would really know if I was studying for a certification or researching something for a project anyway.

aftereffector wrote: »

Work pays me to work - studying happens on my own time.

Might be time to find a job that understands professional development is very important and in the end makes your work better.

markulous

I've never had a job that gave me specified times to study or heard of one. That would be pretty great.

aftereffector

Sure, but I can't block off 9:00 - 10:00 AM for "studying" on my Outlook calendar!

I had this happen when I was managing people. If they wanted to study, I'd let them study (as long as it didn't impact work requirements), but never a dedicated hour of just study time. And I would never ask my employer for dedicated study time, either. I don't even know how I would frame that conversation.

doctorlexus

NetworkNewb wrote: »

No but really, the only reason I even thought of the idea was because that manager told me he allowed his employees to do it and wondering if anyone else does it.

There are definitely less traditional companies that set aside what would otherwise be work time for their employees to work on personal projects, study, or just socialize. I'm not really sure how to categorize these companies, but I've worked for two different ones. The first was a start-up that went belly-up due to mismanagement of funds, and the other was Google, who let us socialize and hang out on Friday afternoons with free beer and snacks.

I imagine it would be hard to tell which companies are like this unless you know people who work for them. But I suppose you could ask about personal development time in an interview. Also, both of the jobs I mentioned above had no dress code, so that may be a hint of a more relaxed work environment.

networker050184

aftereffector wrote: »

I don't even know how I would frame that conversation.

I want to take a few hours a week to learn some new technologies that will help me excel at my job. Something along those lines. Every job I've had has certainly encouraged that.

E Double U

I was with my former employer for 3+ years and in that time I knocked out CCNA/P Security, CISSP, and GCIH with a huge amount of studying being done at work. My boss didn't have a specified slot for me to do it. I just studied between tasks. Each day was different so some days I got more reading done than others. I always kept a book on my desk and just looked down at it whenever I had a moment. Considering that all of my studies were relevant to the job and I got my work done the CISO never said anything about it.

EagerDinosaur

I sometimes get agreement from my manager to spend a couple of hours studying in the office in the run-up to an exam, but at least 80% of my studying is done in my own time outside work. I'm not happy with this, but I think in consulting/outsourcing companies, there is a lot of pressure to maximise the amount of staff time that can be charged directly to customers. My current employer is reluctant to spend money on external courses, or spend money on non-chargeable staff activities to improve staff skills.

Also, if I spend a lot of company time studying for an exam and then don't pass the exam first time, that's an uncomforable conversation to have with my manager.

Remedymp

Most IT centric companies will a lot hour a week for personal development. You can't ask your employees to know what they know without some form of personal development. It's a contradiction.

Mooseboost

I have the benefit of being able to study during downtime. I work the evening shift in a NOC - so sometimes we are pretty dead. Instead of derping on the internet, I try to spend most of my down time learning something new or working on projects.

$bvb379

I was told that if I had some downtime to study. I know that AT&T has time allotted for self improvement as well if you work in certain departments.

wolfinsheepsclothing

40 hours/quarter. Pretty sweet.

Edit: that's the minimum required.

thatguy67

It's kind of an unwritten policy, but at my helpdesk position, if we aren't doing tickets, we are working on our internal projects. If we have no projects, then we study for cert exams. Naturally that doesn't actually happen

There is also a few partners we have that require training that results in a Sales-type certification, typically through a 4+ hour webinar. We are paid to attend those.

JoJoCal19

Right now 90% of my studying is at work. My job is with a German firm and most of our work is with people in Europe so we only have 4 (I have 6 since I come in 2 hours ahead of my co-workers) of overlap when we do most of our work. I work in security problem management so unless I'm on a call or updating my problem tickets, I study. I average a good 4+ solid hours of study every day unless it's a busy day and I have multiple meetings, which is the exception not the norm. Our manager in Germany knows we have a lot of free time and management appreciates it more if we use it to study industry related stuff rather than just surfing the net. The only other time I study is early morning at home on the weekends. I have a rule that I don't take time from my wife or kids to study with the exception of the days right before an exam.

TechGromit

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I haven't had another job where a manager said that and wondering if anyone else has got that or has asked for that before?

Yes, I was encouraged by my manager to study during the day when I was studying for my GSEC exam. They were pushing people to get certified, some days at when it was slow I was spending 6 hours a day studying. Unfortunately I've been busy at work the last couple of weeks and was unable to devote any time to study during the day. I've been mostly studying after hours for my next certification.

UnixGuy

aftereffector wrote: »

.... And I would never ask my employer for dedicated study time, either. I don't even know how I would frame that conversation.

Mate, just open up a PDF on your computer and read for 20 minutes. If someone looks at your screen and asks you what you're doing ask them why are they looking at your screen...just say you're reading up about a technology.

TomkoTech

My current company encourages self-study as long as it's applicable to the job. For example I can't study/do math homework. But as long as we aren't slammed I can research/study for the CCNA, competitive services such as AWS or VMWare. They are actually talking about sending my and another guy for official Citrix and Meraki training.

Danielm7

UnixGuy wrote: »

Mate, just open up a PDF on your computer and read for 20 minutes. If someone looks at your screen and asks you what you're doing ask them why are they looking at your screen...just say you're reading up about a technology.

While I completely agree and have always had some freedom in jobs, some roles just aren't like that. For example at my workplace, I can do stuff for days without anyone even asking me what I'm working on. Even then they aren't grilling me they might just be curious. T1 helpdesk their manager is all over them and if they were watching CBT nuggets and taking notes he'd be annoyed.

clouder

The only times I've done this were: A) when I was prepping for my CISSP, which was required for the job and

previous jobs when we had downtime and the okay to do so.

Chevel

We have so much down time its not even funny so its either I study or I can be like the others and watch YT videos all day.

Iristheangel

It always depends on the job and how fast paced it was.

When I was lower down the totem pole, I had more time during work. During my first IT job, I was taking calls and doing little projects but in between those, I would review my A+/Network+/Security+ PDFs on my desktop and takes notes and I had a second job at night doing non-IT stuff which I could study the entire time. When I was working as a security analyst, I realized I was pretty fast at my tasks and my boss told me he didn't care what I did with my day - if I got all my work done or at least more than my coworkers, I could study for the rest of the day. I usually would be far far ahead by noon and then spend the last 3 hours studying. It worked out well because I got through WGU in a year and a half thanks to that.

Then I started in networking... I definitely didn't have time to go study on the clock but I did come to work earlier to study at my desk (and avoid traffic) and studied later at night. It worked out. At my current job, I definitely don't have much time during the day so I wake up at 5am to usually study until 7 or 8AM

tedjames

I've been working in state gubment for the last 12 years or so. At my last agency, I earned four certifications, studying mostly at work. I never specifically asked for permission to do that, but it was understood that as long as I finished my work assignments, I could study, especially since the subject matter pertained to my job. Last August, I went to work at another state agency. My new boss actually insisted that I spend so many hours per week studying. He's paying for the eLearnSecurity Penetration Testing Student course for me. Occasionally, he'll let me stay home for an entire day just to train. Training/studying on the clock isn't something new, at least not for me. In the '90s at Motorola, my boss encouraged me to study web development during work time. Before that at a software company that shall not be named, I was allowed to study Unix and shell scripting during work time.

masq

Chevel wrote: »

We have so much down time its not even funny so its either I study or I can be like the others and watch YT videos all day.

Same story here.. If it wasn't for my studies and reading at work , I'd be bored to death already..literally.. - automated _a_lot_ of stuff in place years ago, this is something that works for me now.

UnixGuy wrote: »

Mate, just open up a PDF on your computer and read for 20 minutes. If someone looks at your screen and asks you what you're doing ask them why are they looking at your screen...just say you're reading up about a technology.

Hey, you're describing my day, lol

NetworkNewb

Iristheangel wrote: »

I wake up at 5am to usually study until 7 or 8AM

Thats what I'm trying to work on right now. I want to start waking up and getting stuff done before work. So hard to get out of bed at 5am though... That snooze button is just so tempting and my Keurig machine at home just broke down a couple weeks ago! Been holding off on dropping the money on a new one, just need to bite the bullet on that one though.

Iristheangel

Ha. Yes, sooooo easy to fall back asleep. I think it's my guilt over waking my spouse with my alarm more than one time so I drag myself out :P

doctorlexus

I wish someone would just pay me to study and get certifications. But you know what they say: "if wishes were horses" or something like that.

DPG

This is what I provide to my employees:

1. Just about unlimited study time while on the clock.
2. Dedicated 1-on-1 training time.
3. Provide almost any training material requested (CBT Nuggets, Pluralsight, books, etc).
4. Dedicated VMware lab with unlimited compute and storage resources.
5. Offer to pay for certification exams upfront.
6. Fully reimburse certification exams fees after passing.
7. Bonuses for passing a certification exam.
8. Raises based on exams passed.

Do you know how many have taken advantage of this out of about 20 employees?

2

Danielm7

DPG wrote: »

Do you know how many have taken advantage of this out of about 20 employees?

2

That hurts to read! I'd be all over that, as I'm sure most of the readers here at TE would be too.