The IT Training Quandary

What do you do when your employer says no more training? What do you do when you know that your organization should move to the cloud or at least some discrete components? How do you stay current and not stagnate? Can you do this within the organization, or must you go outside to gain the skills you seek?

This is a huge quandary…

Or is it?

Not too long ago, I wrote about becoming stale in your skill sets, and how that becomes a career-limiting scenario. The “gotcha” in this situation is that often your employer isn't as focused on training as you are. The employer may believe in getting you trained up, but you may feel as if that training is less than marketable or forward thinking. Or, worse, the employer doesn’t feel that training is necessary. They may view you as being capable of doing the job you’ve been asked to do, and that the movement toward future technology is not mission critical. Or, there just might not be budget allotted for training.

These scenarios are confusing and difficult. How is one to deal with the disparity between what you want and what your employer wants?

The need for strategy, in this case, is truly critical. I don’t advocate misleading your employer, of course, but we are all looking out for ourselves and what we can do to leverage our careers. Some people are satisfied with what they’re doing and don’t long to sharpen their skills, while others are like sharks, not living unless they’re moving forward. I consider myself to be among the latter.

Research free training options. I know, for example, that Microsoft has much of its Azure training available online for no cost. Again, I don’t recommend boiling the ocean, but you can choose what you want to select strategically. Of course, knowing the course you wish to take might force you to actually pay for the training you seek.

Certainly, a sandbox environment, or home lab environment, where you can build up and tear down test platforms would provide self-training. Of course, getting certifications in that mode are somewhat difficult, as well as gaining access to the right tools to accomplish your training in the ways the vendor recommends.

I advocate doing research on a product category that would benefit the company in today’s environment, but can act as a catalyst for the movement to the cloud. Should that be on the horizon, the most useful ramp in this case is likely Backup as a Service or DR as a service. So the research into new categories of backup, like Cohesity, Rubrik, or Actifio, where data management, location, and data awareness are critical, can assist the movement of the organization toward cloudy approaches. If you can effectively sell the benefits of your vision, then your star should rise in the eyes of management. Sometimes it may feel like you’re dragging the technology behind you, or that you’re pushing undesired tech toward your IT management, but fighting the good fight is well worth it. You can orchestrate a cost-free proof of concept on products like these to facilitate the research, and thus prove the benefit to the organization, without significant outlay.

In this way, you can guide your organization toward the technologies that are most beneficial to them by solving today’s issues while plotting forward-thinking strategies. Some organizations are simply not conducive to this approach, which leads me to my next point.

Sometimes, the only way to better your skills, or improve your salary/stature, is without the relationship in your current organization. This is a very dynamic field, and movement from vendor to end-user to channel partner has proven a fluid stream. If you find that you’re just not getting satisfaction within your IT org, you really should consider whether moving on is the right approach. This draconian approach is one that should be approached with caution, as the appearance of hopping from gig to gig can potentially be viewed by an employer as a negative. However, there are times when the only way to move upward is to move onward.