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I've done a lot of paid training as an IT employee. Studying for a cassandra certification, getting the Kubernetes Admin certification, regular redundant OWASP

by Sevii 5y ago

I've done a lot of paid training as an IT employee. Studying for a cassandra certification, getting the Kubernetes Admin certification, regular redundant OWASP security trainings. Export restriction trainings. There were a lot more that I didn't take. We basically had our own khan academy worth of trainings you could take at my last job.

chrisseaton 5y ago
Imagine if when we promoted developers from juniors to seniors they were taken off their project and sent on a six-month residential retreat to focus exclusively on their own professional and personal development. That's the kind of approach to training the military has - beats some online course and corporate certs!
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  I always get jealous when managers at my company constantly go to trainings or are assigned to different roles to add skills. There really is a system for developing managers. That's opposed to developers who are basically asked to stagnate and stay where they are.
  - indigochill 5y ago
    You should probably sort that out with your current employer or find a new one. Mine provides open access to a ton of online resources as well as maintaining a regular budget for developer-initiated things like going to conferences/seminars or buying books. It's actually rare that the training budget gets fully spent, but on the other hand I've never had a request turned down. For a while, my employer was even footing my college bill when I decided to back for my MS. That one came with a contract to stay on longer to "pay" them back, but that was fine because I had no plans to leave.
    - Aeolun 5y ago
      My problem is that my company pays for these things, but there never seems to be time to go.
      - spaetzleesser 5y ago
        Same here. It’s not a priority for career development but viewed as a perk
- mpyne 5y ago
  That's the point Nic was making. Sharp people get assigned to digital/IT management roles straight from operational assignments, with *NO* training at all. Not even "on the job". In some services, even the uniformed staff with IT training will have last had that training 10-15 years prior, with all their skills having atrophied in the meantime. The underlying military organizational management assumption is that operational experience translates to general management effectiveness (e.g. "I commanded a ship of 300 Sailors doing a wide array of jobs, so I can lead an agency of 500 civilians doing a wide array of jobs"). With the right support this can work in a heavily digital office until the leader can pick it up with on-the-job training, but it's not the way you'd plan to do it. This is why the nuclear Navy requires even their senior supervisors to be technically competent to the task of leading nuclear organizations. Navy offices dealing with aviation are led by naval aviators. Shipbuilding offices are led by officers with a career operating surface ships and submarines, etc. etc. But the bench of uniformed talent who have been groomed through a career of working on software teams to lead future software factories is very small. That will change over time as the services work to define specialized communities and agencies to build that bench. But yeah, as an entering assumption you'd like your digital offices and agencies to be led by people with current digital expertise, ideally through a career actually shipping code, and at least part of that time within the DoD ecosystem.

by Sevii 5y ago

chrisseaton 5y ago

Imagine if when we promoted developers from juniors to seniors they were taken off their project and sent on a six-month residential retreat to focus exclusively on their own professional and personal development. That's the kind of approach to training the military has - beats some online course and corporate certs!

spaetzleesser 5y ago
I always get jealous when managers at my company constantly go to trainings or are assigned to different roles to add skills. There really is a system for developing managers. That's opposed to developers who are basically asked to stagnate and stay where they are.
- indigochill 5y ago
  You should probably sort that out with your current employer or find a new one. Mine provides open access to a ton of online resources as well as maintaining a regular budget for developer-initiated things like going to conferences/seminars or buying books. It's actually rare that the training budget gets fully spent, but on the other hand I've never had a request turned down. For a while, my employer was even footing my college bill when I decided to back for my MS. That one came with a contract to stay on longer to "pay" them back, but that was fine because I had no plans to leave.
  - Aeolun 5y ago
    My problem is that my company pays for these things, but there never seems to be time to go.
    - spaetzleesser 5y ago
      Same here. It’s not a priority for career development but viewed as a perk
mpyne 5y ago
That's the point Nic was making. Sharp people get assigned to digital/IT management roles straight from operational assignments, with *NO* training at all. Not even "on the job". In some services, even the uniformed staff with IT training will have last had that training 10-15 years prior, with all their skills having atrophied in the meantime. The underlying military organizational management assumption is that operational experience translates to general management effectiveness (e.g. "I commanded a ship of 300 Sailors doing a wide array of jobs, so I can lead an agency of 500 civilians doing a wide array of jobs"). With the right support this can work in a heavily digital office until the leader can pick it up with on-the-job training, but it's not the way you'd plan to do it. This is why the nuclear Navy requires even their senior supervisors to be technically competent to the task of leading nuclear organizations. Navy offices dealing with aviation are led by naval aviators. Shipbuilding offices are led by officers with a career operating surface ships and submarines, etc. etc. But the bench of uniformed talent who have been groomed through a career of working on software teams to lead future software factories is very small. That will change over time as the services work to define specialized communities and agencies to build that bench. But yeah, as an entering assumption you'd like your digital offices and agencies to be led by people with current digital expertise, ideally through a career actually shipping code, and at least part of that time within the DoD ecosystem.