There Are Many Benefits to Training. Here are Four.
Here are four reasons training is invaluable to you as a Project Manager.
- Training keeps you engaged. Are you feeling a little sluggish on the job? Do you dread the ride to work each morning, thinking about the long and boring day ahead? Training dispels the monotony. Take a course about an aspect of project management that interests you. It may be risk management, agile methodologies, or root cause analysis. Deepening your knowledge in areas of interest will shake up your otherwise normal routine and get you excited about your job again.
- Training helps your career. Most professional certifications require an ongoing commitment to training and education. While this takes time, the upside is that it comes with real financial value. For example, a PMP-certified Project Manager will make an average of $10,000 more annually than their non-certified counterpart. Keep your training current and an eye on your employment landscape, and you’ll find yourself doing well.
Current and potential employers like to see an ongoing pursuit of education. It helps them appreciate you as a lifelong learner following a particular niche or specialty in your project management career. - Training introduces new ideas. You will always pick up something new when you attend a project management training course simply because the discipline of learning temporarily removes you from your situation and gives you an aerial, objective view. For example, even experienced Project Managers learn new ideas and techniques by attending a fundamentals class. They learn new ways of doing things they are already familiar with.
Training also allows your experience and new learning to come together and provide a more holistic perspective than ever before. These nuggets of wisdom may not always be groundbreaking or revolutionary, but they are new. When you go to a training course with this mindset, you will come back with faster, more efficient, and more profitable ways to complete projects to share with your peers. - Training exposes you to other people. Most classes allow you to interact with new people. Maybe it even allows you to interact with current co-workers in new ways. It’s valuable to get out of your office or cubicle occasionally, see what the rest of the world is up to, and talk to your peers. The relationships you forge with your instructor, the person sitting next to you, or even someone you meet in an elevator can help you throughout your project management career.