Everyone please also point this article at the managers who purchase training for your company or team, and other people you know who’ve had Linux training.
So, a very large part of my business is providing Linux training. Up to now, I have performed only on-site training, often times developing custom training content for clients who have needs that aren’t met by “off the shelf” training. Often times, this has been extremely advanced training, though I also had a client who couldn’t find training that was geared toward people who had almost no exposure to Linux, and only basic Windows skills.
Now, I’m planning to begin offering off-site training at lab facilities, just like the big training giants. The difference being that I have the benefit of having the agility and flexibility of being a small company that can react with lightning speed to my clients needs. If you can and would like to help me out in shaping my training offering, I’d love to hear your input as to what’s missing from the Linux training landscape.
Here are a few questions I’m wondering about, but if you have other insights, those are also welcome. If you don’t want to answer in public, please shoot me an email to jonesy at owladvisors dot com.
- Have you had some Linux training lately that fell short of your expectations?
- What content was missing? What bad assumptions were made about the students?
- What was missing from the training web sites themselves? Is it hard to purchase?
- Are you looking for group discounts?
- What kind of information are you looking for when you buy that you’re not getting?
- Did the materials given out in the class fall short in some way? What were you expecting to receive?
- Did the instructor fall short in some way? What is the ideal instructor in your eyes?
- Do you purchase training solely for certification, or are you more interested in enriching your skill set?
- What kinds of things are you doing with Linux that you can’t find any training for? Be as specific about tools/libraries involved as you can without getting in trouble 😉
- What’s the most annoying experience you’ve had in looking for or being a student in a Linux training course?
- What (non-commercial) tools or techniques do you use every day that are strictly “tribal knowledge”: you’re sure a Linux training class would never cover them in a million years.
Thanks everyone for helping out! Also, if you have any questions for me about training, I’m happy to answer those as well. Post in the comments (I’ll reply!) or email jonesy at owladvisors dot com.