I am new to IBM and I am interested in how much this company invests in employee training? Someone tells me they invest less than ever, and someone that IBM really invests a lot in training new employees.
24 replies (most recent on top)
Can confirm
The badges have value. Last check was 33 times the value you paid for them. However, the value fluctuates daily so check back often.
@3zxn:
You shared it to Linkedin, not recognized in linkedin.
You will know soon when you are interviewing for a new job, that no companies actually recognize/care about that IBM training “Badges”. It is only the gimmick to make you feel better, to compensate the anxiety the employees have everyday, knowing they could be next in the RA list.
If you still don’t get the point, it is okay, One day you will know what I mean.
Not true. I took courses about cloud and hybrid cloud and got badges that are recognized on linked-in. I'm now a trained cloud specialist. Also they has good agile courses with badges you get to show you are agile certified.
IBM? Invest in training? What a joke!
IBM gives you outdated training content from decades ago, it was the same material that doesn’t fit to current needs.
If that’s not enough for you to laugh, IBM uses so-called “IBM Facilitator”, its internal HR people, to train you, IBM does not invest in a professional coach/trainer to train its employees.
Furthermore, all competitive differentiators are self-pleasuring slides IBM built to brainwash its employees into believing that its obsolete products really stand out.
You got me LOL at "invest" and "training". Not just IBM but all companies cannot justify that investment when employee can be ejected any moment by layoffs and since loyalty is dead for many many years now, you'd be training your competition anyways. So now you get "training" but learn nothing useful.
Yeah I thought that was an odd question here.
You have to separate training from propaganda. There are classes everyone must take that only teach what IBM wants us to say to customers or public. This is not training. When I need to know how a product works so I can actually perform on an engagement, there is maybe a class some months after the product is available, or maybe not. Of course we all must take hours and hours of Business Conduct and Anti Harassment and other things that teach no useful skills.
we can close here, cauz is full of trolls or others aligned ... close it , please
there's a LOT of training available on the your-leanring site. They even have badges you can get and put them on your linkedin profile. Don't listen to these buffoons. They are just jealous they don't get free trips to classes that could be done virtually.
If you outsource to a handful of people who don't know what they're talking about, who maybe come from BA or marketing, the learning control of a war machine that was spot-on-new-oriented, what happens? You suffocate the unraveling of the roots towards the water and then the lifeblood. And so it was that repetitive and boring indoctrination courses arrived, always the same ones (to the bitter end - to keep their function / department active in its multiple duplications for GEO and BU this another source of passivity) without connection with the development needs of a company that should have been oriented towards innovation. So in addition to the main HR I would say that the Learning function and its detachment from the knowledge market are guilty. Serving more or less unaware of a self-referential and "id–tic" ideology (in the sense of ignorant, despite believing to know) slowly k–led (because the clinical death is near) the possibility of resurrecting curiosity (a unique human quality that produces value). Vergona, but also stupid. Think and Re think.
Think40? No, more like drink40 (oz) while training video is on mute.
To answer the HR troll(s).. let's use a specific example
I completed the ever-expanding-curriculum-of-mandatory Journey To Cloud training by not reading one slide, not watching any talking head pitch, and jumping direct to the tests.
Instead of estimated 100+ hours to complete all the modules.. I blew through it in 4-6 hours. there was nothing to learn.. just a mandatory check mark for watching some product BS
HR TROLLING!!!
On the job training is the norm, assuming you are curious enough to want to learn. I don't think training has been a "thing" since at least 2009. When I first joined the company they devoted a lot of time to proper training, but it slowly fizzled out over the years, in such a mellow way you didn't notice until it was too late! Then they started pushing mandatory certification, which required you to find the time to learn during your regular work schedule. So for those that didn't do any real work, they had the time to find the answers (through study or more creative means if they lacked the motivation to learn). Ironically those of us that did real work and knew the product portfolios well, struggled to pass the test because the real world answers didn't always match the "correct" ones in the exam. The net result is a status quo of the workforce standards. Rinse and repeat. And of course the certifications are so IBM centric, they are of little value when you (are asked to) leave. Having certifications made no difference in my ability to do my job.
Now in the channel world, IBM forces partners to get certifications for what I call favors/kickbacks - better discounting and better recognition, mixed in with pay-to-play. I see some value in that, but the partners know how to play the game and I can guarantee you, certifications don't always improve the partners capability to deliver.
IBM's training process is simple - it is step 3 below:
1 Management hears about some technology or technique that other companies (after years of investment) are making boatloads of money from and they come down with a bad case of FOMO.
2 Management hires people who (on paper at least) already know things about that shiny old technology. Buzzwords bingo on your resume is the key to being hired here.
3 Management never (not anymore) allocates time to learn new stuff - and anyhow, for several years IBMers have been too busy watching their backs and playing corporate survivor.
4 When the project inevitably fails (at IBM but not at the other companies) they layoffs begin.
5 GOTO 1
It is not all bad. If you are looking to learn new technology and tools, IBM is definitely not the place to be anymore. However, painfully learning about steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is definitely worth it in the long term, in order to avoid ever working at a company like IBM (there are others out there) ever again.
$0 is your investment budget for the year. Actually, it's -$$$. They require you to get certified, but won't pay for it and will promote your cert for their $$.
Also, please don't ask them to go to a conference, they'll just laugh at you.
My dept hasn't had an educational budget for about four years now.
You need troll training
Ibm has lots of internal webinars, which are fine, but really subpar to the education delivered by AWS and others who have recognized external certifications. You can take any of those certifications to any new job and they will earn you money. IBM classes mean nothing externally.
Also retired (after many yrs)
ibm provided education was pretty good in my first 20 or so.. but over time "education" became more "product marketing".. low on competition and low on true industry/marketplace fit-to-need. The skilled internal education skills are long gone.. (except of course mgr/exec training I would expect.) Even billable customer product courseware was outsourced.
Exhaust what you can find internal from ibm, then look for, or get good advice on external.
I think it's now mostly On-The-Job.. so getting better and challenging assignments/roles helps.
- g.
At one point in my past, a prior major downturn/re-org period, I consciously moved to PC Co from a F500 coverage role.. quite a dramatic shift in sales model/forced retrain.
It was a survival decision.
IBM used to invest a lot in employee training. Now there is no money for that so you are limited to whatever you can find and will pay for. Free internal education might be good or not.
HR troll or not, this is one area where IBM excels. Disclaimer- I am a retired (on my own volition) DE. There are a lot of things that really bothered me about IBM, especially the last year before I left, but training stands out, at least for those in Global Markets (or what was Global Markets). There were so many training webinars to attend and certifications to achieve, the challenge was more of where to focus. Does that outweigh all the company’s problems? Definitely not.
I was about to post exactly the same thing.
HR troll again? No newly hired employee goes to a layoff site to ask a question like this.