RE: Educational areas to pursue

[Andrea Frazier <AFrazier -at- CreativeSolutions -dot- com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato [mailto:gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 11:27 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Cc: AFrazier -at- CreativeSolutions -dot- com
Subject: Re: Educational areas to pursue


"Andrea Frazier" wrote 

> What I heard was two people offering advice that says when a person
decides
> to study, they should bear in mind what will also benefit their careers,
not
> JUST their current job. Emphases on "ALSO" and "JUST." I don't know how
much
> clearer I can make it. I didn't hear anyone urging the writer to ignore
> their employer, only not to focus solely on the employer's goals at the
> exclusion of any of their own.

If you read Beth's original post, she says: "Who wants to go from being an
accomplished techwriter to being a newbie programmer? Not me."  

I interpreted that line as a clear rejection of an employer's requests. And
that to me is bad advice. 

- - - - 

If that's what she meant, then you're right. I wonder if anyone in this
thread has considered that she might be a bad fit there and maybe should
leave? I don't recall anyone proposing that idea -- I've been skimming a bit
--  but maybe that's the case. If so, it seems better for her and her
employer to face that fact (that she's not interested in taking programming)
sooner rather than later. People who are a bad fit for their job should move
on; there's no shame in that.

 - - - -  

In fact, being a newbie programmer would make a writer MORE accomplished.
Having strong programming skills would not hinder a writer in any way. It
would
make a writer MORE capable at writing about software and programming.

It would however be hard and I realize this would take many writers away
from
there beloved tasks of fondling fonts, twisting templates, and masticating
methodologies.

 - - - - 

I assume you're not referring to my former situation. Sometimes it's the
employer that makes you study a bunch of fluff and BS, not your own choice..


 - - - - 

My position was that if an employer asked you to learn something, it should
not
be rejected. And I would agree that you can pursue both personal educational
desires and employer motivated ones. 

- - - - 

Here you and I are 100% in agreement. Notice that I said I did take the
required training and pursued my own education after hours.

- - - - 

Furthermore, being paid overtime to attend employer-paid education is
absurd.
They're already paying for the education. You get to enjoy the skills long
after you left. Why should they pay overtime for those classes?

- - - - 

I didn't say they did. What I was trying to convey (but may have missed it)
is that it was a bit of a sacrifice on my part. The classes in some cases
were 8 hours long, 2-3 days in a row, during company time. I did not get to
slack off on my daily duties but had to continue with my work day AFTER the
classes. And I'm not talking about spreading this over a year; this took
place over the course of 4-6 weeks! While it's true I did benefit from some
of those classes, and I'm grateful for them, in the long run they did
nothing to make me more employable and overall just amounted to common
sense. I took them because I was ordered to, but in the end, I think my
judgment about what made me more employable won out over theirs. Sometimes
that happens.


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