In praise of training (or lack thereof)

Investing in yourself.

Companies are facing cost pressures and cutting back on items that make sense in the long term in exchange for revenue generating survival tactics. Training is normally one of the first to be cut.

On the job training is the most common training companies have to offer. In fact it may be the only training any employee gets as opposed to formal classroom based training. However, the merits of different training types are not really the focus of this article.

‘Space your repetition’. This was a great concept I took away from a recently launched course on Coursera — ( Learning how to learn). Often as employees, we feel as though we are being short changed and given the short end of the stick. A common complaint I hear from my friends is the lack of training, or how on job training is just companies trying to cut cost and save money. I do agree that on the job training is really just an euphermism to save costs, however there are certain merits. On the job training forces the employee to focus on the task they are supposed to perform daily. It justifies the monthly salary.

As an example, I used to work as a design engineering for a chip packaging company. The job required me to use autocad to connect silicon pads to the packaging pins (integrated circuits terminology). The whole operation involves using Autocad.

I had absolutely no idea how to use Autocad, my colleagues had to teach me how to use it to perform the basic tasks in my job. The first few weeks were slow. However, repeating the same process daily really helps the knowledge sink in. Over time, through asking questions and doing simple research, I learnt the shortcuts and deeper functionality of using Autocad. Instead of just merely focusing on the 2D plane, I would try playing around with 3D functionality. The most senior designer would write scripts in auto lisp to automate certain steps. This he shared with the team to help them out with their day to day tasks and improve productivity.

We need a repeatable methodology to stay engaged and excited.

My personal approach:

1. Learn the basics
2. Space your repetition (daily)
3. Personal research and development (asking questions or researching online)
4. Set a personal road map for learning (in this case, I explored deeper functionality and tried to learn to program in autolisp)
5. Teaching and sharing with the team

This is a great way to learn and earn credibility. At the same time, it helps position you to move on to greater things or other areas of interest.