Compete today? Modernize your skills on own time

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It's what Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and chief executive, claims is necessary, at least as reported by the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/techno...pt-or-else.html

In an ambitious corporate education program that started about two years ago, he is offering to pay for classes (at least some of them) to help employees modernize their skills. But there’s a catch: They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.

To Mr. Stephenson, it should be an easy choice for most workers: Learn new skills or find your career choices are very limited.

“There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop,” he said in a recent interview at AT&T’s Dallas headquarters. People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning, he added, “will obsolete themselves with the technology.”

Kevin? He admires his younger brother, but he is among the many AT&T lifers who are not that keen to participate in this reinvention of old Ma Bell. “I’m riding the copper train all the way down,” he said.
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Personally, I've found it necessary to spend 5-10 hrs/wk in some kind learning every year of my career. It's nice when someone else pays the bill for it, but the quality of online training is low, usually delayed by years after I need the information, and isolated from a heterogeneous reality. A lot of times I'm reading spec sheets and bug reports; sometimes I'm writing up things that appear later in a vendor's solutions.

Anyway, Mr. Randall Stephenson's saying to 280,000 of his that this is your future. I'd be inclined to ignore what he says because of poor customer service from the company in the past, but if I worked there I'd have to be thinking about it. At least thinking about how I can get "online training" credit for all the things I do that are too new or out of scope to be trained online for.
 
I love to learn...I never stop.

Hoping with a job improvement shortly, I can make it an official change: that master's degree...
 
Life-Long Learning. The only way to go.

I would be fine with this; after all most of my education, training and certification (some of which has to be renewed annually or bi-annually) is on my dime. I've taken more than 20 First Aid courses, because it's annual refresher plus total re-certification every 2 years ($240) here, and can probably save your life if whatever is in your BITOG Sig somehow tries to kill you. I have saved a few already.

Anyone who offers to pony up a few bucks is fine by me.

I'm not sure about the career benefits, though. Most employers go by a pretty narrow lens and are conservative in the extreme when it comes to hiring criteria and the job description.

If you are dealing with a Personnel Department, it's even worse as they are averse to hiring "mistakes" to the point where taking any chance whatsoever causes them to cringe in fear of the next Performance Review (and they *know* Performance Reviews ... they probably implemented and administer them).

So, in summary, you really don't get much credit for the self-education you undertake, and it can even raise eyebrows. Only list those that directly relate to a job you are pursuing, delete any that don't fit a narrow definition of the job duties or your company's mission.

I wonder what they would think, for example, of my Certificate from Bartender's School, which I took just because I like to mix drinks for friends and wanted to know the right way to do it.

(Now I know about wine, draft beer, and proper cleaning techniques, and I don't need to memorize the drinks at home. Part of the Final Exam was the examiner calls out 10 drinks from about 200 you should have memorized and you make them, in the proper order, proper glass, proper garnish, etc within 2 minutes. Passing grade is 8/10. One of the tougher courses I've taken, actually).

Take a course that offers a certificate from the local Community College and you get put on the top of the hiring pile. Do a self-study program on something that actually increases your skill set and if it doesn't have a familiar institutional tag on it and a piece of paper attached, it probably counts for nothing to them. Good news is it counts for a lot to you personally.
 
Interesting article but it's rather easy to tell it was written by a journalist that doesn't really understand the subject, much less the technology.

A few points:

1. Who is the focus of this program? Mostly managers and mostly older ones.
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2. ATT just spent $63 billion for a satellite company when more & more people are unplugging from satellite due to the costs, fees, & poor reception. Not to mention billing hassles...Interesting timing that....
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3. ATT's been carpet-bombing both my phone and email about 'upgrading' to UVerse, but there's no fiber on my poles. Their pushing it through 30yr old copper. Further, they have a tough time keeping the connections clean and my SNR high. They don't understand how I can Just Say No. Go figure....
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4. Due to a recent billing dispute, ATT not only turned off my landline, but pulled the plug on my ADSL and froze my Yahoo email. Rather heavy-handed given the circumstances, so I filed a complaint with the Tx PUC. Two days later, I receive a msg from the Presidents Office wanting to discuss my case....
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5. Do you really want all of your personal data stored in ATT's or anyone else's "cloud"? Is that in your best interests...or theirs? What happens if they pull the plug on your cloud and rain on your parade? Then what?
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6. Are they pushing content their customers are interested in or are they doing so just to sell ads first? Who chooses and who loses? After all, what's the current SNR on DirectTV? Just how many of those 400+ channels are worth watching? There's still only 24hrs/day.
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7. "Data from satellite TV could be analyzed for viewing habits and someday used, for example, to sell football fans a replay app for their AT&T mobile phones." That's creepy. ATT wants to join FB and Gargoyle in data mining and selling your preferences to their ad dept. And remember, you're paying for this....every month! There's something wrong with that picture...literally.
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8. "His (Stephensons) first online learning began with an unexpected challenge: getting online. AT&T’s own Wi-Fi was too clunky, Mr. Thrun recalled. Eventually they used Mr. Thrun’s smartphone, which ran on the network of T-Mobile, a rival carrier."Oopps...perhaps Stephenson should pull his head out of 'ATT's Cloud' and improve the Wi-Fi...in his own building...
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9. "The company claims that a year into the program, over half of the work force, mostly managers, has started training, sometimes with dozens of short online courses." If true, it sounds like ATT is a bit FATT around the middle-managers. Just because your bubble is in the middle doesn't mean your on the level. Sounds like ATT needs to cut some management FATT if they want to go the distance with their younger competition.
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That's enough. /ATT Rant. I'm just still a bit torqued though as it took over an hour on the phone recently to get my bill straightened out and have > $100 of mistakes and unauthorized charges removed. The mistakes and changes were all on their end to boot.

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They're all slimebags, att, Verizon, Comcast, DirecTV.

Now the power end is getting slimey with people calling every day to sell me their power
 
Rants and whining about AT&T aside, I can't disagree with the crux of the article. It's a competitive job market, and if a person wants to advance their career they need to continuously improve their skills. Without doing so, the best someone can hope for is to be pigeon-holed into a legacy position.

Not only is it required to advance a career, but a life of learning is far more fulfilling than a stagnant life. You can retire from your job, but you should never retire from learning.
 
I don't understand this part:

*In an ambitious corporate education program that started about two years ago, he is offering to pay for classes (at least some of them) to help employees modernize their skills. But there’s a catch: They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.*

He is offering to pay for classes........pay for them with their own money

He's contradicting himself. Unless that was a typo in the article?
 
My guess the antique of company att does not value e learning internally and the article is trying to dump/justify cost dumping to his employees.

I am technology expert in terms of these e learning systems(custom) and happen to be at massive corporation where they value it and ceo does too.
 
Don't get me started about ATT. I built many fiber rings around Boston for them. Came to work one Monday, and 15 minutes later , I was gone. ATT is best avoided. I went with Verizon, they don't @#$% as bad as ATT. I got the heck out of the business. Glad I did.
smile.gif
 
Interesting. My workplace is implementing a "new" annual employee evaluation/development program that involves active goal setting, regular communication and update with supervisor, and year end evaluation/repeat cycle.

I emphasize "new", because it is very similar to our development plan started in the 1980s, then abandoned, and going to other simpler iterations. Here we go again.

In a manager's seminar last week, they stated that in the 1970's and 1980's, a person's technical skills would be 50% outdated in about 10-15 years. Today, they estimate the same situation every 5 years +/-.

They also stated that many progressive companies are actually abandoning this advanced employee evaluation/development system. But, my workplace is behind and needs to catch up??? I have no idea if there is any truth to this.

In my last review, at age 60, my supervisor asked what my career goals were! At age 60, one wants to stay on top of technical changes, remain a productive employee, expand where applicable, while at the same time develop retirement strategies. Not the same as the young whipper strapper looking to conquer the world.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I don't understand this part:

*In an ambitious corporate education program that started about two years ago, he is offering to pay for classes (at least some of them) to help employees modernize their skills. But there’s a catch: They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.*

He is offering to pay for classes........pay for them with their own money

He's contradicting himself. Unless that was a typo in the article?


I think the operative word is "sometimes" which likely means that the company will pay for classes related directly to your current job but not for any ambitious efforts that involve classwork that could be deemed outside the scope of your duties or as prerequisites for something like an MBA or a credential that doesn't involve what you do on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the company will only pay for the core classes and the employee would have to cover for the electives. That might be independent of whatever annual stipend the company gives you for education and training.
 
I do agree that life-long learning is a must and further, that it's the responsibility of the individual to seek it out, invest the time and do the work. Being curious and resourceful has many benefits. Nothing wrong with competition either: It keeps the knives sharp.
 
I had to do that with my employer. I pay for the class and the books. Once the grades are in, if I have a B or better I get reimbursed for the tuition and books.

It's my time and my mileage. But my employer is willing to pay for success.

Seems reasonable to me. We all have some skin in the game.

Took 18 credit hours in 2013-2014. I'll probably go back for some more training at sometime in the future.

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I don't understand this part:

*In an ambitious corporate education program that started about two years ago, he is offering to pay for classes (at least some of them) to help employees modernize their skills. But there’s a catch: They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.*

He is offering to pay for classes........pay for them with their own money

He's contradicting himself. Unless that was a typo in the article?
 
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