Personal development courses - are they worth the bother?

Throughout my career in industry, I worked for companies that tried to expose their employees to a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition to the usual technical classes, I attended numerous seminars that can be grouped under the title "personal development." Some of the ones that come to mind are Effective Presentations, Business Writing, Goal Setting, Effective Teamwork, Time Management and Career Planning.

The technical classes were for the most part very effective, and a few of the personal skills classes actually made me do some things differently and better. But I have a confession to make. If I can be used as a barometer, the majority of the nontechnical classes weren't worth the paper their material was written on! Looking back, I can honestly say that I learned very little in any of them that really made me a better employee (or person).

That experience still bothers me - either my employer was wasting money or I blew some great opportunities!

It seems to me that the least-effective courses were taught by "outside" experts and revolved around self-motivation, self-realization or some other esoteric topic. In retrospect, our employers did not seem to really care what we learned and that may be the genesis of the whole problem. I suspect that many of the seminars were the result of a vague management objective to provide staff development training and guidance opportunities. Unfortunately, we had no opportunity, or requirement, to demonstrate that we learned anything at all.

And maybe it really was just me and my young freewheeling friends! Perhaps these types of courses just don't translate well to young technical people. But I suspect that there is a deeper problem. I believe that it is very difficult - by attending a one-shot seminar - to change personality traits that are deeply rooted in our psyche. Changing those things requires continual training and review as well as a sincere commitment on our part.

Our friend and guest column writer, Tamara Solomon, recently related a story about going to a mandatory seminar with her coworkers that was designed to help them "bond together as a unit." It sounded vaguely familiar and was obviously the rerun of some of the ones I attended years ago. She will tell you more in the next newsletter.

Tom Whitley and the staff of Management Recruiters of Kannapolis, specialize in recruiting information systems, telecommunications, and networking professionals at both the technical and managerial levels. If you are interested in discussing career opportunities, if you need assistance with your recruiting efforts, or if you have comments about the Career Advisor contact Tom at tomwhitley@ctc.net.

Making career investments
Network World, 4/17/98

Network World's online archive of Fusion Focus newsletters on Careers.