RE: The relevance of COMMON -- MIDRANGE-L

Eric,

I've been one of those fortunates (until recently) that had an employer who
sent me to COMMON.  Although, I've always said COMMON was so important that
I would pay my own way.  Unfortunately, since we've begun implementing to
SAP R/3, COMMON is no longer a priority.  From a developer's perspective we
are isolated from the platform that is running R/3.  I plan to continue
going to one COMMON conference per year at my expense.  I took a week
vacation this past March and paid my way to San Diego.  It is expensive, but
I feel it is necessary to keep my skills and salary at the level I desire.
I expect some of the cost to be tax deductible.  We'll see what the tax guy
says next February.  The neat thing about paying your own way, is that you
get to focus on the topics that really interest you instead of going to the
sessions requested by your employer.

Regards,
Stan

-----Original Message-----
From: eric.delong@pmsi-services.com
[mailto:eric.delong@pmsi-services.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 2:41 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re[4]: The relevance of COMMON (was Penton to buy Duke -



     I'm not really saying I'm frustrated with COMMON, exactly. Common 
     *could* be a bit more affordable, but that's not the point. It's 
     mostly frustration at TPTB who dangle the "training budget" in 
     front of my nose as an incentive, only to use that money in other 
     ways. In 15 years in midrange, I've had EXACTLY 1 day (6-7 hours) 
     of training (in house no less) for a product I was already familiar 
     with (I did learn some things, though). Everything else I've ever 
     learned has been via manuals, books, Synon generated code (YUK! 
     That's where I first learned subfiles.... S36 to AS400 shop, no one 
     else had any idea how to do them), trial and error, and most 
     recently this list and online resources. 
     
     Don't misunderstand, I feel that the grunt work has paid off over 
     the years. I learn best from my own mistakes, and I've made plenty 
     over the years, but I can't help feeling that much of the grief and 
     confusion could have been reduced or avoided completely with a bit 
     of training and source materials. 
     
     Recap: Training *should* be a benefit, to myself and my employer. 
     It *should not* be the golden carrot that's continually just out of 
     reach. That's the frustration.
     
     eric.delong@pmsi-services.com
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