Personal / Professional Development training?
Personal / Professional Development training?
(OP)
My company is having a Personal Development initiative, and paying for personal and professional improvement courses. I’m mostly interested in courses that can improve my salary bracket. What courses have you taken that you’d recommend? Extra points if I get a certificate at the end!





RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
I would recommend abandoning that thought, and taking advantage of courses with topics that you are passionate about.
"It is imperative Cunth doesn't get his hands on those codes."
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
Doing stuff just for money is basically prostitution, and most prostitutes would probably say that they hate their "job."
TTFN

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RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
If you want to improve your salary by training, figure out what your company values (production; technical expertise; marketing; etc.) and get trained in that. The payoff will not be immediate, but it will add arrows to your quiver.
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
I think one best out comes for me, and the department, would be to find learning opportunities on organizing the department and developing ways to work with other departments in the plant (Program Management is an uphill battle because no one else cares about program actions their managers or supervisors don't assign to them, and those managers and supervisors aren't evaluated on program results). If I can demonstrate those skills I could advance into a management position, get a higher salary, and have some feeling of accomplishment for this position, but I'm not the only one with that train of thought.
How much weight to programs like these carry?:
http://web.mit.edu/professional/short-programs/cer...
http://training.sae.org/academies/acad09/
http://www.amanet.org/training/seminars/Taking-on-...
Thanks
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
I.e - get people to help you because they owe you one not because it's on their yearly goals or their manager told them to.
This means you need to do a bunch of nice things for various folks, with the risk some may not pay off. Who in other departments can you help? When someone does help you how can you turn the balance of favorhood back to you? e.g. if a bunch of people help you out on a high profile project maybe you lay on a lunch for them all - that way the favor is back in their court.
Develop personal relationships with folks in all kinds of departments and roles, even if they may not be in a position to help you in the immediate future you can build good will. Bob may never be in a position to help you directly, but might tell their buddy Sue how nice and helpful you are so that when you ask Sue for a favor she helps you out...
Depending how far you're willing to take it play up other types of relationship e.g. if there are some women co workers a good bit older than you maybe you can get them to be a bit motherly toward you and help you out on that basis - to avoid being sexist I will say you can take the same approach with men getting them to be fatherly. Even if the age gap is smaller you may be able to play on big brother/sister like relationships.
I'm hesitant to suggest flirting to get the help you need but if needs must and your moral compass allows it well that's up to you. Just think about the morals of that one and the potential for 'harmless' flirting to be misconstrued and lead to embarrassing/awkward situations or even accusations of sexual harassment.
I will now sit back and await the accusations of toying with peoples emotions, abusing relationships or even perhaps being Machiavellian.
Or perhaps, this is what my soon to be former boss meant when he said I had people skills - which I didn't really take as a compliment.
Then I'd take company funded classes in something I found interesting.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
You do not need to go on a course for self development, there is enough on google, youtube, linkedin, eng-tips etc to give you an understanding and you should be doing this in your own time. I suggest the following areas for investigation: Sales (internal and external customers), how to manage, how to manage your manager, staff engagement, time keeping, delegation, report writing, the list goes on. I enjoy watching Simon Sinek on Youtube
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
Come on - that is a bit harsh on Careful not knowing his/her experience level, etc.
Although, I do agree that there is a wealth of free or cheap resources on the internet. Remember, Careful said his/her company is paying for it - you never say no to that, and it by no means precludes he/she from using the internet resources while taking advantage of company-based programs.
"It is imperative Cunth doesn't get his hands on those codes."
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
But perhaps the question should be read in a slightly different light, such as "What courses did the rest of you find helpful in your own career development?" (which, honestly, seems pretty close to the original question in the first place). It's a fair question. If we knew how to solve all of our problems, we'd be rich. While we all can't necessarily provide industry-specific courses, there are plenty of generic courses that would be helpful (e.g., suggesting Toast Masters to someone who has difficulty speaking in front of audiences).
Unfortunately, I do not have any suggestions for the OP, but I felt the need to add my own two cents to that reply...
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
I am not a manager at my company (I don't have management knowledge).
I want to become a manager at my company.
I have an opportunity to have courses paid for by my company (a chance to gain management knowledge.
I want to take a Good management course, and avoid Bad management course (I want gain as much management knowledge as I can in a single course).
I asked members of eng-tips.com to recommend Good management course (or other courses), and I would even appreciate warnings about Bad management courses so I could avoid them.
I can't make it any clearer than that. Again, my apologies for confusing you.
I am curious though, has putting "I watch Simon Sinek on Youtube" on your resume gotten you a lot of interviews?
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
Experience is what gets you interviews. Proclamations of quantifiable achievements.
I don't know any structural engineers that put their PDH course list on their resume, but rather would list actual design projects that express their specialties.
_________________________________________
NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD, Enovia V5
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
OK, this is NEW information, and casts a completely different light on your original question.
One thing you should start with is to see what qualifications your company is looking for.
TTFN

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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
My thoughts exactly. I noticed the MIT link didn't specificly highlight the management course they offer, but they have a good offering as well. I'm hoping someone who's taken one will be able to provide first hand experience.
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
On a slightly more technical side you might want to look at 6 sigma, or parts thereof. Much of the six sigma material is mutton dressed as lamb, but in my experience they have managed to tie it together quite nicely and created a framework that managers find believable and useful. It's a bit monkey see, monkey do, but if you actually use the stuff in projects I think it hangs together.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
"It is imperative Cunth doesn't get his hands on those codes."
RE: Personal / Professional Development training?
Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC