RE: What's been the most valuable course you have taken?

["Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com>]

Lois Patterson asked:
>However, what courses in particular have list members taken that have
proven
>immediately useful in actually getting a particular job or contract, or
>increasing your salary/hourly rate? Also, is there any obvious preference
>for knowledge gained from a course as opposed to knowledge gained from
>self-study?

The 4.5 day FrameMaker course I took three years ago. I'd already been using
FrameMaker for three weeks at that point, and (1) the first three days of
the course confirmed (rather expensively for my employers at the time) that
yes indeed, I can learn a package to "intermediate" level inside three weeks
all on my ownie-o, (2) the last day and a half of the course ("Advanced"
level) taught me a whole lot of short cuts and effective ways of doing
things, (3) because I had taken this course, I put FrameMaker down on my CV
right away as a tool I knew - and my interview-getting rate went UP like a
helium balloon on a fine day (4) and from one of those interviews, I got a
job that I was very happy with that paid me double what I was getting at my
previous job.

As for your second question: a good course should provide you with knowledge
in a more condensed and rationally presented form than is possible with
learning-by-doing/self-study. But I have been on courses that were notable
mainly for the pastries and coffee served at break-time. I've never taken a
Microsoft Word course, yet after seven years using multiple versions of it
and having an inquisitive disposition (hm, what does THIS do), in most
places I'm the office Word maven (what keeps me humble <g> is that I know
how little I know in comparison to REAL Word mavens like Steve Hudson, the
Man Who Can).

Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone. Apologies
for the long additional sig: it is added automatically and outwith my
control.


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