Squished wrote: » .....all I have to say is take advantage of every last dollar of it until the day you leave. Working 8 years at a non profit has taught me numerous life experiences that I'll have forever to share as stories at an interview, but having a training budget of $0 year after year has been detrimental to my professional development as an IT Professional. Now before you comment I could have spent my own money on myself, my wife is a public school teacher and me working at a non-profit doesn't exactly mean the floodgates of money are coming in this house. With a 7 month old at home it's especially tight. I convinced my employer to give me $2000 towards training/certification so I'm trying to get as much done as possible just to give me a baseline then I'll supplement myself afterward after I land a new job. As a hiring manager, those of you that call certain certifications a waste of time or no value, you couldn't be more wrong. Any investment in yourself stands out on a resume, especially if they are up to date. that is all!
GirlyGirl wrote: » I am kinda going through something like that right now. Just the opposite kinda. As we speak, if I left my employer today I would owe them over 11k. The catch is, with most employers if you are reimbursed for educational benefits or paid educational benefits up front you have obligations. Those obligations tend to be a service to the employer. My service is 1 year. Not 1 year from the point I press play on OnDemand or 1 year from the day I take a certification test. It is 1 year from the point the money hits my bank account. No, it is not 1 calendar year either. Here is an example: 1. Deposit hits 2/26/2018. I am obligated to stay until 2/26/2019. 2. Deposit hits 5/14/2018. I am obligated to stay until 5/14/2019. 4. Deposit hits 7/2/2018. I am obligated to stay until 7/2/2019. It's a vicious cycle that's really hard to get out of. It's like you are stuck at the company forever. Truth be told, I have an account setup for when I leave. I have money set aside for the time in which I will possibly leave. I look at every training and class I have taken as professional development. I look at a class like, would I pay for it out of my pocket? Does it have a return of investment? What's the hits on the job boards? If those answers don't come back promising I don't have the company pay for it. Why? Because I'll end up paying for it when/if I leave. So, not having education reimbursement is a double edged sword. You have to take the good with the bad. It is only a great situation if you plan on doing several years with the company. In IT, with experience, certifications, education, and training it's hard to stay with a company several years. It's always going to be opportunities for more money. ... So, look at it from someone in my shoes. If I left today I'd owe my company over 11k. If I get fired I owe over 11k. No matter how you cut the cake the company is winning.
SteveLavoie wrote: » Well, in my company, if my employer pay for a major training(>1000$), he require 3 years of service. He split the value of all money injected into the training (salary, expense, training tuition etc.) by 36, and if you leave before, you owe him the balance. In my case, I had many training, and a few years ago, I was the end of all my training debt, I got offered another training (surely a way to ensure I would stay), but I declined. It was a red alarm for him, that I could jump ship and the start of a real nice discussion
Cisco Inferno wrote: » sorry about that, but what prevented you from buying a used book for $15?
Squished wrote: » Absolutely nothing at all and I have many books. Much of my higher level IT skills are self taught, uncertified skills acquired from books and Google. When the exams are hundreds of dollars a piece and the lab trainings are equally expensive, It becomes cost-prohibitive.
Danielm7 wrote: » Three years is a crazy amount of commitment for that. At my workplace, tuition reimbursement is paid at a max of 5250 a year, and you owe for a year after that. Training isn't as frequent as some but there isn't a payback schedule. If you can talk them into a SANS class, then you can leave a week after you passed the cert and be free and clear. I work with a lot of people who have no degree at all, or maybe just an AS from tech school, who have been here for 6+ years and have always been afraid to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement for fear they'd be tied to the company for a few years. As for the OP, I get funding issues, but not everything costs thousands of dollars. No idea what they do in IT but even something like an MCSA or CCNA can be budgeted for over a period of a few months for a couple hundred dollars total. Maybe I'm just a little salty over this after hearing a guy at a party over the weekend complain that he's forever trapped at his job because his company won't give him 5K a year for IT training.
McxRisley wrote: » So I don't see companys giving you money with an obligation to stay for an extra year or so as them winning. From a financial perspective, you are the one who is winning. Think about it, they just fronted you money with 0% interest and if you stay for the agreed upon amount of time, you owe them NOTHING. So you essentially are getting a FREE loan, this type of deal would make bankers have a stroke. I have been on both sides of the spectrum, paying out of pocket for training and having my employer pay for my training. It's never fun to have to pay back a large sum of money but if its an investment in yourself and it helps you make that next step towards your goal, then it is worth every penny.
SteveLavoie wrote: » If we try to come back to the OP question, I think that you can train by yourself with a minimum of money invested. I use Pluralsight (299$/year) and Safaribooksonline(399$/year). My boss pay Pluralsight and I pay out of my pocket for Safaribookonline. Most of the time, Pluralsight course are at least as good as the average trainer. So in my case, it replaced most of the Windows training for a very modest fee. So no excuse
SteveLavoie wrote: » If you meet an employer who dont want to pay 299$ / year for your training... Prepare your resume ASAP.
NetworkNewb wrote: » Membership to AMC: https://www.acm.org/ $99 a year and get full access to SafariBooksOnline and SkillSoft. Insane deal!
Pseudonym wrote: » Lab training expensive? Microsoft server ISOs are free. Packet tracer is free. I'm sure there are many more examples. I'm not buying this. I've never had work pay for my certs. I pay for everything, and I do it on a budget. But guess what? I still do it.
Pseudonym wrote: » Do you drink alcohol? Go out with friends on occasion? Smoke? Not insinuating that you do. I'm just saying there's almost always a way to make something work if you want it enough.
