kgibson07
Cleveland, OH (Ohio City)
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new horizons in dublin - http://www.newhorizons.com/content/centerSearchResults.aspx?&zipcode=43016&SiteId=
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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You're much better off searching Amazon for Tomcat 6 and buying a book that gets good reviews. Having spoken with a number of people who write those technical/software books, I'd trust their writing far more than 99% of training company classes. Same goes for J2EE and Linux. Plus, the book stays on your shelf when you need to reference it, versus the short half-life of knowledge the moment you walk out of that not cheap class. :wink:
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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dredd wrote thanks everyone. I have some books I've been reading, but I can't seem to just sit down and read them. So much to learn!
Books will be your best friends, especially since people tend to get pulled on and off IT projects at absolutely random times so you have to have some resource to fall back on when you return to something weeks later. :D
milodesc
NJ
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I've been reading a book on and off for the past several months called "How Tomcat Works". It's pretty good at explaining the basics of what makes a web container. The book basically goes through and explains each fo the important classes in Tomcat 4. It's not great at explaining what it takes to maintain/administer/configure the web container, but I've definitely learned a lot.
the first 2 chapters can be read here.
columbus_local
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I loved New Horizons. I got my A+, N+, and MCSE there. It's pretty intense, and they cram a ton of stuff down your throat quickly, but they also want to make sure that you understand it. I'm going back this fall for my CCNA.
jwing
Clintonville / Beechwold
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myliftkk wrote You're much better off searching Amazon for Tomcat 6 and buying a book that gets good reviews. Having spoken with a number of people who write those technical/software books, I'd trust their writing far more than 99% of training company classes. Same goes for J2EE and Linux. Plus, the book stays on your shelf when you need to reference it, versus the short half-life of knowledge the moment you walk out of that not cheap class. :wink:
To me, the value of the training class is hearing about the experience and knowledge of the instructor and classmates. Talking shop with collegues can give you new perspective, new ideea, etc. The last class I took, the instructor teaches half the year, and consults on the topic he teaches the other half of the year. Learning from his experience is invaluable. Plus, any class I've taken they give you a book on the subject matter anyway.
By the way, I would recommend Global Knowledge. They are a national company but offer classes locally.
jwing
Clintonville / Beechwold
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columbus_local wrote I loved New Horizons. I got my A+, N+, and MCSE there. It's pretty intense, and they cram a ton of stuff down your throat quickly, but they also want to make sure that you understand it. I'm going back this fall for my CCNA.
In my experience (which was only one class) NH as a company was good to work with, but I felt the instructor was only average. Main complaint was that he read the PowerPoint slides verbatim. A lot. Also, although he was knowledgeable of the subject matter, you could tell he didn't have too much real world experience. I still got a lot out of the class though.
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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jwing wrotemyliftkk wrote You're much better off searching Amazon for Tomcat 6 and buying a book that gets good reviews. Having spoken with a number of people who write those technical/software books, I'd trust their writing far more than 99% of training company classes. Same goes for J2EE and Linux. Plus, the book stays on your shelf when you need to reference it, versus the short half-life of knowledge the moment you walk out of that not cheap class. :wink:To me, the value of the training class is hearing about the experience and knowledge of the instructor and classmates. Talking shop with collegues can give you new perspective, new ideea, etc. The last class I took, the instructor teaches half the year, and consults on the topic he teaches the other half of the year. Learning from his experience is invaluable. Plus, any class I've taken they give you a book on the subject matter anyway.
By the way, I would recommend Global Knowledge. They are a national company but offer classes locally.
Talking shop is cheap though, and can be done for free in any number of forums, online or off. Training classes however are not, the average being a couple of grand for a single class (to use the GK class on z/OS as a reference). If you have to move around between numerous technologies on a regular basis and aren't tethered to a single tool, books are one of the best ways to pick up new skills and keep them for reference. Of course there are useless books, just like there are useless instructors, but the risk and captial investment is much lower with a book. For the price of one narrowly focused training class, say $2k, I can add 30-40 technical books (avg price $50/book) to my library on a whole range of subjects.
Granted, I am not a big fan of the sub-industry of IT training consultants that has sprung up especially where it concerns specific vendor products, as if you couldn't tell :D . If it takes someone's oral history to teach IT personel something that can't be written down and explained logically, then we might as well just go back to to wigwams and medicine doctors. I'm also jaded because the vast majority of these kids who come out of school (with their supposed 4 years of classroom training) are ridicuously underprepared to operate in the world of software. :roll:
jwing
Clintonville / Beechwold
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myliftkk,
I agree with you - books are good. Personally, I probably pick up 2 - 3 books per year for learning and reference. Also - I Google everything these days.
I prefer to get 1 - 2 training classes in per year. As I've said before the interactions with industry veterans is invaluable to me. They are paid to educate you. Forums are good, but there is far less incentive for someone on the other end to give you the info you need.
Most training classes have labs. So you learn the theory, then apply in lab.
Another thing to think about - you are sitting in a room with 20 or so peers. Think of the networking. I've made more than a few excellent contacts through training classes.
Also, you cant ask a book a question.
I do agree that markup on training is incredible. However, a little deal hunting can drop the price by 20 - 40%. Training companies always offer discounts - especially if you talk about taking more than one class. Global Knowledge constantly sends me coupons to use for their classes.
Bottom line - books, training classes, online learning, etc are all useful. I believe you have the find the right combination for you. But completely discounting training classes can cause you to miss out on a lot.
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