Study At Work?

I am just moved into a position at work where I am allowed the chance to study! This is great for me because like many of the other threads I have read, I also have no home time to study.

My wonder is this, how does everyone who is able to study at work dedicate to it? I am usually distracted by something or have a project going.

Do you set aside time each day, or just be really dedicated to here and there.

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Comments

swild

I am caught up on most of my projects or waiting on someone else so I have been studying most of the day for the last 2 weeks. I do have to say that it is the first time since I started here 9 months ago that I have had any time. I'm finally caught up from what the last people were not doing. I would say set a reminder in your outlook/thunderbird calendar to study or dedicate and hour everyday after lunch. And since I started typing this tomorrow filled itself up with 4 meetings, 2 conference calls and tech coming for a site survey. w00t.

etowntec

I am allowed to study at work when I am caught up on projects or when waiting on progress bars to complete. The system I work for encourages all tech employees to study for certs and pays for the cert exams when we are ready. Only down side is in the past year and a half I have obtained Security+, MCSA: 2003, CCENT, and HP certified on printers, servers, desktops & notebooks. All of this and I haven't had a pay raise or any hopes of a raise in 4 years of being in the position. So lately I am nearly ready to complete my ICND2 for CCNA certification but I am starting to lack in motivation to obtain the cert due to it not helping in my job at all.

ptilsen

The one time I had a job that I had time to study at work, it really didn't work out that well.

First, even though I had lots of downtime, I got interrupted frequently.

Second, even when I had lots of uninterrupted downtime, I ended up screwing around instead of studying or working. If I were in the same position now, I would probably actually study.

A big part of me misses having that freedom, but a bigger part of me enjoys being kept busy doing work while I'm at work. Being productive is just a good feeling all around. My actual duties provide valuable experience anyway -- more valuable than studying, in some cases.

shodown

When you have postitions take advantage. I had a position like that when I was younger and didn't take advantage. I watched a guy get his IE by studying at least 10-15 hours a week on the job. That time adds up quickly.

dave330i

My study is based on future projects. I'm currently studying VCP5 because we plan to migrate to vSphere 5. Once I'm done with VCP5, I need to start studying for SQL since I need to manage a large SQL database. Knowing that success of future projects depend on how much I study is pretty good motivation.

vCole

dave330i wrote: »

My study is based on future projects. I'm currently studying VCP5 because we plan to migrate to vSphere 5. Once I'm done with VCP5, I need to start studying for SQL since I need to manage a large SQL database. Knowing that success of future projects depend on how much I study is pretty good motivation.

Do you work for an IT Consulting firm or internal IT at a company?

snokerpoker

I study at work as much as I can! As times goes by and my son gets older, I have less time to study at home.

dave330i

vCole wrote: »

Do you work for an IT Consulting firm or internal IT at a company?

I work as a contractor at a small branch office of 1 of the alphabet agency. There're 2 of us supporting server side. They're willing to invest in new technology but not more support. So the 2 of us are expected to know about a lot of different stuff.

Turgon

No time to study at work.

altjx

I've always taken advantage of idle time at work. Actually, I've studied for majority of all my certifications while at work and home. Not that I just have extremely long idle times, but I'm just good with time management.

drkat

Turgon wrote: »

No time to study at work.

I have the same problem. I'm too busy posting on TE.

Turgon

drkat wrote: »

I have the same problem. I'm too busy posting on TE.

Im too busy in design meetings, and to be honest, more certifications dont really add a lot of value there.

N2IT

ptilsen wrote: »

A big part of me misses having that freedom, but a bigger part of me enjoys being kept busy doing work while I'm at work. Being productive is just a good feeling all around. My actual duties provide valuable experience anyway -- more valuable than studying, in some cases.

I learn x10 by actually doing the job. If I get to the point where I have time to studying for certs on a consistent basis at work it's time to start looking for another job.

elTorito

I wish I had time to study at work! Oftentimes I don't even get to focus on actual work, due to constant interruptions.

I enjoy being kept busy at work (which is what the working life of a jack-of-all-trades admin is about), but I do find my position to be insanely restrictive in terms of learning opportunities. Things that I learn on the job are often quickly forgotten because I rarely get the chance to revisit something I've done in the past.

If you're given the chance to study at work, make use of it! Set aside blocks of time and isolate yourself from the rest of the department. Go find some part of the building where interruptions are kept at a minimum. Oftentimes you're better off sitting somewhere with a lot of background noise (ie. the server room), rather than someplace where everyone can walk in and interrupt your train of thought.

Turgon

altjx wrote: »

I've always taken advantage of idle time at work. Actually, I've studied for majority of all my certifications while at work and home. Not that I just have extremely long idle times, but I'm just good with time management.

I dont think you are busy enough at work. If you have idle time at work, forget the next cert and get yourself into a few more meetings where you can champion things for improvement and get busy on that. That stuff gets you raises and gives you bragging rights for a better job elsewhere. More certs dont.

Hypntick

No real time for study at work myself, i've taken a couple of lunches where i've studied, but just 1 hour doesn't do it for me. I need at least 3-4 hours of solid time to really get anything done. While my job does reward certifications for its employees, they do request that you spend your own time working on them. With the exception of work required certs such as the Sonicwall cert that everyone has to get for our partner status.

demonfurbie

i have a very reactive job so i do all my studying for wgu at work

Dsmith81

My company allows me to set my own schedule, and I have a mobile office that allows me to work basically anywhere, the only downside is it's not IT related. I need to move into an entry level IT job, but it's hard because of my income, I can't afford to take a pay cut right now. I am studying at work though whenever I can.

Psoasman

demonfurbie wrote: »

i have a very reactive job so i do all my studying for wgu at work

Same here. As long as the daily tasks are completed and calls done, I'm free to study for my degree.

cxzar20

I will usually study during lunch or if there is some down time between projects. I will study some at home but not too much, the way I look at it the organization is benefiting as well from expanding your knowledge base so there is nothing wrong with doing that during work if you have down time. Your daily job duties should always come first however.

Shanman

I don't get much time to study. I am always busy. I do however pop on TE for a 5 minutes here and there.

Bokeh

Although the boss doesn't mind if I have the books open during work, sometimes it gets too busy. So what I do is have some audio guides loaded on the Ipod, and have them playing in the background. Then when I get home and open the books, a lot of it syncs in a lot quicker.

VAHokie56

I can typically justify an hour or 2 of studying when I come back from lunch a couple times a week. Sometimes that means busting tail in the morning and sometimes its just quiet....a little to quiet....

nel

i have no time to study. Our team consists of 2 people. We are snowed under. But the experience is so good for someone like me who is still learning their way. Plus i get to play with all the kewl new toys like asr9ks, be involved in design, negotiation when purchasing and so forth, aswell as usual network tasks. My on the job experience made it easier to pass the ccnp for sure. Hopefully it will be enough to take me further too.

i do try to study on dinner breaks though but its hard due to how much my head hurts usually

saspro

I've got my full lab set up at work in the corner of the office. If we're not really busy at work then the entire team are free to study whatever they like.
On a good day we can get 6 hours of studying each.

jibbajabba

Whilst I can do whatever I want at work as long as the work gets done, I don't have the patience to even crack open a book, someone WILL distract me in one way or another

thall860

saspro wrote: »

On a good day we can get 6 hours of studying each.

6 hours of free study time a day? Wow where do you work

saspro

thall860 wrote: »

6 hours of free study time a day? Wow where do you work

An outsourced IT company in London.

pwjohnston

When I was working on my Cisco certs, if there was not a server down or major emergency I would devote an hour each morning to it.

powerfool

If it is for a current project, I will bill my client for studying, unless it was for something the expected me to walk into the door with.

Otherwise, I may study at work and not bill for it... I have plenty of billable time as I can work from home, as well.

The problem for me is that I got thrown onto a project where I really need to be studying three different technologies... and get certified on two of them.