So while looking thru my Tweetdeck this morning I saw a repeating trend. I am going to call out the SharePoint Phantom, just due the fact I love the ICON.
I need some education on SharePoint. Where should I turn? SharePoint Phantom @SharePhantom
That has been a trending question since the dawn of SharePoint, heck since technology in general. Love it, use it, but need more training. Well I have one quote:
Here I Come To Save The Day!
Reason is not to promote a book, lesson plan, or training organization, it is to promote a concept. The reason I love it, is simple it uses Collaboration. Yep the thing we are all trying to learn about, is what is going to drive our education.
Professional Tutoring:
So I am piloting a concept here in Portland Oregon of the idea of reaching out to experts or recognized folks in your local SharePoint User Group(if you have one) as tutors. Some folks see this as more of professional tutoring.
Mentors:
I have found that the value of Mentorship is highly missed. When I was working in Information Security the small group of CISSP’s in the Portland area were a top group of folks to bounce ideas off. I do have to say that also did include hiring them to fix things or come in as a second chair on a project.
Pay for it:
So everyone has a Professional Consulting firm or IT company in the area that has at least one SharePoint guru. (disclaimer: I am not saying they know what they are doing, they just carry the title sometimes). Hire them for a few hours to come in and teach you how to do something. Now you need to get your value, so you will need to have some outlined tasks, or things you want to do. Get those together, pay for 4 hours of time, and get them in. Do a screen record using Live Meeting (get the audio too, or it will not make sense). Mini training.
Go to a Training Firm:
Go to a training company look at the syllabus and if it fits take a class. If you are new to SharePoint, you will get a lot from an instructor with real world experience. Make sure you research the instructor, and have some references. I hate a paper warrior, they always suck in real life situations. Also make sure the class you take fits your role. It is not a one size fits them all situation in life, trust me we all wear so many hats we forget who we are sometimes.
Back Story…..I have been doing software training for years, and luckily the companies I worked for were vender agnostic to the most part, they just wanted you the have a solid understanding….why they were your support line also. So the more support you needed the less money they made. So translation. If I rocked the training, we made more money. So I think that should be the true goal of any training offering…even free. Make the students understand the tool enough to use it, knowledgeable, with governance, security, best practices, and the KISS principle in tact.
Conclusion: Hey training is meant to make you smarter, feel more confident to do your job, and give you either new skills or polish existing. This is your chance to think outside the box. All else fails find a kick butt site, find out who the admin is, and ask questions. I am sure he will spill the beans over a Latte.
and Thank You to the SharePoint Phantom for letting me steal his post….big fan.