4 Great Ways To Get Professional Training On The Cheap

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Are you looking to learn some new job skills to advance your career, but your boss is telling you there's nothing left in the training budget?

Great news! High-quality training has never been more accessible – or more affordable – than it is now. And if you're looking to change your career path, get a promotion, or make your resume more appealing to potential employers, you won't need to break the bank to build new skills, enhance your marketability, and fill out your resume.

Here are 4 great ways to get professional training on the cheap:

1. University-Led Online Courses (also known as MOOC's – Massive Open Online Courses): Many colleges record and put their classes online – the very same classes degree-seeking students pay good money to take. If you're more concerned with gaining the knowledge these classes offer than you are with getting college credit, you can take these classes online for cheap – or even free. And a lot of these e-learning classes cover cutting-edge topics. Check out Coursera (which has classes from top-tier schools including Penn, Michigan, Stanford, and Duke); edX (MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Texas); and FutureLearn (dozens of leading global universities). There are many, many other MOOC's, which can be found listed here.
    

2. LinkedIn Learning: I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn, and there are many great reasons for job seekers to upgrade to a premium subscription. LinkedIn recently gave users another really good reason to pony up for a subscription, LinkedIn Learning. There are tons of prerecorded online courses, ranging from business topics (leadership, project management, finance and accounting) to creative (3D animation, CAD, graphic design) to technology (IT, web development, data science), and more. There's even training on Microsoft Office and other major software packages. The courses are pretty high quality, and the system all you can eat for a single price. NOTE: In case you were wondering, I am in no way affiliated with LinkedIn other than as a paying user, and for my subscription I pay rack rate. But I've been using the system since its early days and while there are things about it I don't love, I firmly believe in its power as both a job search and recruitment tool.
    

3. Continuing Education: Many school districts and community colleges offer adult-oriented classes and training on a variety of topics at a very low cost. For example, Miami Dade College, the community college serving the Miami, Florida area, offers a variety of classes through their School of Continuing Education on everything from GED and ESOL certification classes, to business courses, to technical training, and hobbies.
    

4. YouTube. Just search for "How to... (your topic)." Want to learn how to rebuild an automotive transmission? Or perhaps you'd like to better understand coding in Python. True, YouTube is an informal environment, but if you're looking for down-and-dirty instruction on a topic, it's a great resource.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

How To Nail The Interview Question, "Tell Me About Yourself!"

"Wait, wait, I know this one!" / iStockphoto.com (Wavebreakmedia)

The interview question, "Tell me about yourself," is painful for so many reasons:

• It's vague, and wide open to interpretation.
• It's unclear what the interviewer wants to know about you. Are they interested in your work history? Or are they interested in knowing your golf score? Your inability to read the interviewer's mind can toss you out of the running.
• It is, quite frankly, a lazy question. It requires no imagination or planning on the part of the interviewer, and places the burden squarely on you to make of it what you can.

When I was a recruiter and I had to run into an interview with acandidate with little time to prepare, I asked this question, too. Sorry.

Regardless of how the interviewer asks this question, you should really be hearing the following question:

"Why should I hire you?"

The best strategy here is to toss out your best "elevator speech." In case you haven't heard the term, an elevator speech refers to a short sales pitch that can be delivered during a brief elevator ride with your intended target.

As an example, let's say you devised an incredible new chemical process for converting lead to gold, and you find yourself in an elevator ride with the president of a chemical company. The ride in the elevator might last two minutes, at most. How can you sell your idea to the president in that time?

You only get one chance to make a first impression, right? How can you open your interview as strongly as possible? You need to load your answer with your qualifications, and give the hiring managers reasons, to hire you.

Let's say you're a teacher interviewing for a tenure-track educator position at a school district. The conversation might look something like this:

Interviewer: So, tell me about yourself (yawns).

Job Hunter: I would be glad to. I am a highly skilled and experienced educator, with over ten years of experience in changing the lives of young students for the better. My teaching methods have been recognized as highly advanced, and I currently hold the latest state certifications. Over the last three years, my classes have consistently ranked in the top tier of standardized test scores. In addition, I have experience mentoring students in not just the classroom setting, but through my leadership in extracurricular activities such as coaching the soccer team and academic tutoring.

Interviewer: (Perking up) Very interesting! As you know, we have a teaching position available, but we also lost our last soccer coach last week.

Think about what makes you unique and exciting to a hiring manager. Then polish it into your own elevator speech. Then you'll be ready the next time an employer asks you to, "Tell me about yourself."

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

6 Important Questions To Ask Before Quitting Your Nightmare Job

That's the third laptop this week... | iStockphoto.com (RomoloTavani)

We spend more than a third of our lives at work. What do you do if that portion of your life feels like a living hell?

Here are some nightmare scenarios you may be encountering:

Toxic Work Environment. The company sold you a bill of goods on the interview. Morale is bad, your coworkers are worse, and expectations are shifting and unrealistic. A 40-hour workweek is a pipe dream compared to the 70+ hours you’re currently logging.

Your skills no longer meet the company’s needs. Sometimes a major internal shift occurs that makes you vulnerable. For example, maybe you’re an IT manager who’s been working on 20-year-old technology that’s being sunsetted at the end of the year, and there’s no plans or budget to train you up on the new platform. This kind of thing can also happen with soft skills, too – maybe the CEO is rolling out a new service model and it’s clear you’re having difficulty adapting.

Your boss has it in for you. Perhaps you and your manager have different philosophies. Maybe he wants to replace you with somebody he worked with at his last company. Or, maybe, he’s just evil. Either way, you have a bulls-eye on your back, and when things go south you will be blamed.

You’ve burned out. Sometimes it feels like you have nothing left to offer – no passion, no interest, no energy, and no motivation.

Or, maybe, your situation is a combination of all the above. In any event, you have a knot in your stomach just thinking about work, and you’re popping Rolaids like candy in order to battle back chronic acid reflux.

A thought crosses your mind: “This job is horrible, I should just quit. I can find another job.”

Acting on this is another matter. We depend on our job in order to eat and to put a roof over our head. Here are six important questions to ask yourself before deciding to quit your nightmare job.

1. Is the situation temporary? Let’s say your manager is the primary source of your aggravation ­– is he filling in as the boss while the company has a vacancy, or is he settled into the role for the long term? If he’s an equity partner, then he’s clearly not going to move on anytime soon.
    

2. Can you fix the situation? It’s not always possible for the boss to know everything that’s going on in the organization. If a process is broken, sometimes your manager has the power to remedy it, and by telling her she can address it. If the issue is skills related, perhaps you can take a class on your own time. And if you’re having a major personality clash with a coworker that’s causing your pain, sometimes a direct conversation can resolve it. But, sometimes not.
    

3. Can you afford a break in employment? True, you’ll have time available to interview for jobs, but finding a new job takes time, and you won’t be collecting a paycheck while you’re on the hunt. Incidentally, if you quit you won’t qualify for unemployment pay.
    

4. Will my employer pay me to leave? Many senior executives negotiate a severance package prior to accepting a job – if you’re lucky enough to fall into this category, you’ll have an idea of what your financial safety net will look like. But even if you’re not a member of the executive suite, there may still be the potential of a severance package. Some companies are image conscious, and may be willing to discuss some sort of severance in order to maintain their image and provide you with a soft landing – but don’t count on this, as it’s usually the exception, rather than the rule. Severance packages tend to be offered when it’s the company’s decision to part ways, not yours.
    

5. Will my reputation take a hit? As a general rule, candidates who are currently employed tend to be more desirable, whereas candidates who are unemployed tend to generate questions and doubts by potential employers. Trust me, they’ll dig at this during the interview to see if they can uncover your flaws that contributed to your unemployment – fairly or unfairly. Also, you will damage your position during salary negotiations; instead of negotiating a package from a position of strength where the company needs to put together an attractive compensation package to entice you to leave your current opportunity, you’re in the less desirable position of negotiating with minimal leverage.
    

6. Are my skills in demand? Take a serious look at your job market. If your skills are in high demand, employers may be more ready and willing to take a chance on you. If the market for your line of work is flooded with unemployed professionals, prepare for a slow, painful ride.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.