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Ask HN: How should I spend my companies $500 education budget?
I'm a software engineer working on web related tech (servers, websites) for a big well known tech company. My company offers $500 to spend on education (books, courses, etc...) What should I spend it on? Our company uses ruby, typescript mainly for the area I work in. I've been working for about 15 years so I've absorbed most of the basics without reading.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 4y agoAttend local events. Buy books. Try a new language.
- rl1987 4y agoO'Reilly Learning - $499/yr. for a large library of technical books, videos and a selection of webinars.
- thunkle 4y agoWe actually already have access to O'Reilly learning, but I can't say I take advantage of it. How would you approach learning via O'Reilly Learning?
- rl1987 4y agoJust keep reading and watching stuff on regular basis. Think of it as information gym membership - you're losing it if you're not using it. Another thing you can try is attending the webinars about something you want to know more about.
- mdmglr 4y agoFind a book read a chapter a day. Repeat. I sometimes distill what I read into 15 minute “take always” presentations for my team. Helps to reinforce.
- StayTrue 4y agoAre you interested in traveling to conferences?
- schwartzworld 4y ago$500 won't even pay for the ticket to most conferences.
- thunkle 4y agoI'd prefer not to travel. I've been to a few conferences, and haven't gotten as much out of them as I'd imagined I would.
- solardev 4y agoHow about some specific domain that interests you? Graphics, ML, GIS, data science, devops, firmware, crypto, integrated circuits, whatever? Or learn more about a specific industry that interests you? Film, games, energy, natural resources, healthcare, accounting, finance, whatever? Software is your pencil, and you might have great penmanship, but there's still infinite topics to create stories around.
- thunkle 4y agoI'm currently interested in roguelike game development, but I probably couldn't justify that as helping my current job.
- psyklic 4y agoThe book "Hands-on Rust" might be perfect. It sounds like it's about Rust, but it's moreso about how to build a Roguelike using the ECS pattern. https://pragprog.com/titles/hwrust/hands-on-rust/ https://pragprog.com/titles/hwrust/hands-on-rust/
- labarilem 4y agoOk so maybe books/courses about algorithms you could use for the game?
- ilovhn 4y agoSome cloud course/cert exam, like AWS dev associate, would't be a bad idea.
- mynegation 4y agoNot exactly learning, more like training, but for me the biggest ROI was Leetcode. Probably not something you want to expense through your company though, I paid with my own funds. Outside of this, I am paying for DeepLearning.ai specializations on Coursera and enjoying it a lot. The material itself can be reconstructed from free web resources and textbooks but the value is in systematic syllabus, quizzes and programming assignments.
- cosmodisk 4y agoPluralsight, LinkedIn learning, Packt publishing.