Continual Professional Development - proving new skills to non-technical employers

Posted by Tom on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Tom
Published on 2010-11-25T17:31:36Z Indexed on 2010/12/30 12:00 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 360

Filed under:

training

|

employment

|

non-technical

|

professional-development

Background

I work in a non-IT based company, as a professional software developer, building a large scale internal database system. I am fortunate to have a fairly senior position within the company, and have been working here for around 4 years.

Often I get asked by management "how do you learn new things?". To be honest, I don't know how to answer this. Over the last 6 months, I've really gotten my teeth into some new techniques and technologies to make my level of coding far better and hopefully improve the quality of the software.

Even if it's just refreshing my skills on things I've learnt already. Like last week I dived into some complex XLinq and TPL code (.net). Nothing revolutionary, but I feel like I am a bit better than before.

Question

The question is, how do I prove this to my employer? It'd be nice to be able to put this on paper.

Possibilities

I could:

Keep a journal of what I've learnt - keeping the technical bits in (nobody would understand or care, but it's better than them being omitted)
???? (I've run out of ideas already)

Any ideas? Thanks, Tom

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about training

List of Microsoft training kits (2012)

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
Some years ago I published list of Microsoft training kits for developers. Now it’s time to make a little refresh and list current training kits available. Feel free to refer additional training kits in comments. Sharepoint 2010 Developer Training Kit SharePoint 2010 and Windows Phone 7 Training… >>> More
My neural network gets "stuck" while training. Is this normal?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm training a XOR neural network via back-propagation using stochastic gradient descent. The weights of the neural network are initialized to random values between -0.5 and 0.5. The neural network successfully trains itself around 80% of the time. However sometimes it gets "stuck" while backpropagating… >>> More
SQL SERVER – Developer Training Resources and Summary Roundup

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
It is always pleasure for any author when other renowned authors in the industry write about you. Earlier I wrote a five part blog series on Developer Training and I have received a phenomenal response to the series. I have received plenty of comments, questions and feedback. I thought it would be… >>> More
Enjoy Discounts as High as 25 Percent on Online Training Products in the Microsoft Training Catalog

as seen on Dot net Slackers - Search for 'Dot net Slackers'
Visit the Microsoft Training Catalog to find training and certification resources for Microsoft technologies including SharePoint 2010 and the .NET Framework. Receive discounts on the purchase of online training products in the catalog....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles… >>> More
Developer Training – Various Options for Maximum Benefit – Part 4

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 Developer Training –… >>> More

Related posts about employment

On Contract Employment

as seen on Gooder Code - Search for 'Gooder Code'
I am going to post about something I don’t post about a lot, the business side of development. Scott at the antipimp does a good job of explaining how contracts work from a business perspective. I am going to give a view from the ground. First, a little background on myself. I have recently taken… >>> More
To maximize chances of functional programming employment

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Given that the future of programming is functional, at some point in the nearish future I want to be paid to code in a functional language, preferably Haskell. Assuming I have a firm grasp of the language, plus all the basic programmer attributes (good communication skills/sense of humour/hygiene… >>> More
MySQL Student database beginner SQL employment expectations

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Background, Student pursuing BSIT degree, employer expectations, entry level. I would like to solicit opinions from this forum as to what your professional expectations are as regards an entry level position in working in the database realm... I see many job opportunities that require a minimum of… >>> More
What are some non-obvious items that should be included in a good employment contract for a programm

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
My first employee's sub-contracting trial phase has gone extremely well. They become a full employee (programmer) next week. What are some non-obvious elements that should be included in the employment contract? I want the agreement to be as fair as possible to both the company and the new employee… >>> More
KVM graphical tools and employment

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I saw a job classified asking for a Linux admin who could administer KVM based vm's. I can do so if I use virt-manager or some form of graphical tool, but I'm not really familiar with all of the command line material. I also cant really find a good tutorial on it, as most sites say to use the graphical… >>> More