Advise On Taking Course

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Caughtinbetween, Oct 13, 2017.

  1. Elsa

    Elsa Gold IL'ite

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    Since your man purpose of studying further is to get into a higher paying job I would suggest you to
    • make a list of all the courses that you are interested in to start with
    • order them based on your interest
    • look up on glassdoor or payscale websites, the average salaries in that field
    • Lookup universities that offer the courses and attend a demo class if they offer one
    • Take free or paid MOOC’s and check if it is something that interests you.
    • And then zero in on one of them.
    Also do you like what you are working on now? Or are you looking for a change? You can decide on a course based on your plan.
     
  2. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    If your employer is subsidizing your education do they require you to work for them for a set amount of time afterwards?
     
  3. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    Thank you everyone for your replies . It helps a lot to listen to your thoughts and opinions and get some very good and practical suggestions .
    So update : I have started preparing for AWS Cloud Associate certification (Linux) which so far is going good .
    However I will be taking a 1-2 year college course sponsored partly by company alongside working. Because as @sokanasanah and @Nonya suggested above face to face classroom interactions would definitely help and play a role in overall personality development too , I think . I am currently looking for the colleges and courses which are inline with cloud computing and also which is covered by company too . thats work in progress for me .
    I also had few informational interviews with the Managers and Team leaders who work on projects in the same field in the company and they all suggested what they were looking for in their team members and how I can fill the gap . If I could complete the prerequisite courses that they suggested , I can take part in a 6 month training program in the company with placement to the related project. I am for now working on studying those courses . Hopefully I have a clearer picture by beginning of next year.
    But I had few problems during the informational interviews . I mean I could request for the interview professionally and got replies too . However I felt there were few avoidable gaps while talking . I thought I could be better prepared to keep the conversation going not have awkward gaps in between and I also need to work on giving a good intro and closure . Besides thanking the manager for his time and information I could not speak more . There were few awkward silent moments in between . I read a few articles about informational's which emphasized on not putting yourself in a position where the interviewer thinks that you are asking for a job directly or indirectly . instead focus on his interests and how got to where he is and make it look like a conversation about the work he does and how you can fill the gaps and follow his work and stuff like that. I overall think I succeeded in doing that . But not in keeping up the conversation going . ANy suggestions on making myself better in handling such instances would be very helpful;

    Thank you
     
  4. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    @MalStrom No that condition is not there . Even if its completely unrelated field of study , you can get education and move out if you find a related job . However they only sponsor certain fields of education and if your interested course is not in the list they wont sponsor .
     
  5. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    @Elsa thank you.
    Yes for now , I am preparing and taking few short courses online before I decide on the college for a long term course . I have just started looking around for colleges which are sponsored and have the courses i am looking for too.
     
  6. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    There's nothing stopping you from taking a folder with you containing documents relevant to the conversation: a list of discussion topics, questions, useful information on the company, latest trends in the field, etc. Should the conversation flag, you can then use these to steer it. The point is to plan and get organized ahead of time. Almost any conversation with people we do not know can generate awkward silences. If you initiated the meeting with your request, then you ought to take the initiative in managing it as well. Specific questions invite specific answers that may be limited and somewhat circumscribed. You must also learn to ask open-ended questions that invite digressive answers, that may then form the basis for further conversation. This is a skill that requires cultivation.

    You should also take a few sheets of paper to write on. That allows you to take notes during the conversation, which in turn, buys you time to think. When you start writing, you can say something like: "I hope you don't mind - I like to be organized. Taking notes helps me use my time with you effectively, and then follow up on your advice." There, you put some positive adjectives about yourself into you potential mentor’s head!

    An informational interview is not a test – don’t treat it like one!
     
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  7. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    Thank you very much @sokanasanah for your suggestions . It helped . infact just the next day i had another informational that went well . I made sure that i took notes and asked questions to clarify . Tried being a little casual too . this person was also little different than the previous ones . He directly came to the point . asked me for what i did , what i am looking at and identified the gaps and suggested me on the topics that i should prepare . he infact after the conversation ended gave me the notes that they usually focus on and also offered mock interviews after some time to find out more about my preparations and then fill the gaps further . he is a hiring manager too so that kind of helps . Now i would be focusing on preparing myself enough to put up a promising mock interview so that he sees my efforts in it . its also kind of linked to my job so most of the concepts are known to me so i am feeling positive to start with .
    Thank you .
     
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  8. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    Hi everyone ,

    How are you all doing ?
    Thought this thread is more apt to share my little update here and get your advice . Hence bumping it up .
    I got a job in cloud computing . Was able to find a team in the new year willing to process out of turn promotion and clear the interviews and got all the approvals . Between getting the offer letter and start date there is a gap of about a monht now . Would be receiving training for next few months before hitting the ground. So a lot of learning to do through this summer . Also trying to prepare some study topics during this month before i actually start. What are the topics you would suggest for me to spend time on in the next few weeks that would help me get a good start. After the training and shadow projects with the other experienced team members , i would ultimately start as a cloud architect . Also i heard from other people in similar role that total compensation is about little more than 100k but it depends on how well you negotiate with the HR to get max cash comp. out of the bracket and rest as stocks etc. H is very excited about both the job and the comp. I am starting to feel its little stressful because i dont know how well i would be able to negotiate with the HR during the discussions because all the while my main focus was on getting the foot into the door and secondly i hear there is less room for negotiations during internal transfers . Also I dont want to pull the string hard before I am more comfortable in my own skin.
    And most importantly i want to keep this entire thing low key for now and not get too excited until at least i could finish my training and hit the floor running.
    Looking forward to hear from you. Bricks and bats welcome :) Thank you .
     
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  9. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Congratulations, CIB. Felt good to read the update. Very happy for you. That is quite something you managed to pull off. Internal transfers can be tricky affairs with many a slip between start and final approval. Well done.
    Why not ask the question to people who will be training you? It will show initiative as well as you will know exactly what topics to spend the time on.

    ==========
    Some unrelated yet related thoughts: Bored At Work.
     
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  10. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

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    Thank you @Rihana for the encouragement . it means a lot. I did ask the hiring manager but he was like you dont have to worry about it yet , we will train when you come onboard . But i did check with other people in the same role about there initial days and taking after it. Little worried because professionally and experience wise all the other team members would be above me so want to use this time the best way. Thank you for the response and help throughout .
     

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