Source
r/overemployed•
JavaVsJavaScript

What do you all do with all your training money?

Between my 3 jobs, I have about $6000 in training money available to me. As someone always looking to optimize my returns, I am obviously interested in using it to benefit me in some way if possible.

Before my J1 started thinking more about career development and I got two other jobs, my experience with training opportunities was maybe a few bucks for Udemy.

What ideas have you got? As far as I know, my managers have extreme flexibility with the money.

EDIT: Field is software development.

Posted Apr 16, 2022, 4:04 AM UTC · edited

137101
Nina-Miedosa•

Create a course and list it as high as possible, and then with your trainning money buy that course and you get to keep most of the money.

174
recursivePasta•

Lol, fucking genius

50
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

My other motivation is that I churn credit cards, so I will get to keep 10% of the money anyway. :)

43
roomandcoke•

Would be very interesting to see the crossover between OE and churners. Gotta be pretty significant.

14
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

I suspect that there is strong correlation between FIRE, churning, and OE. I really want to know what other ideas have strong correlation as I want to implement them!

8
CriticalEuphemism•

r/unethicallifeprotips is a good place to look

1
AdventurousMistake72•

Wait, how does this work?

7
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

I get a new credit card. The credit card offers 10% cashback on the first $2000 as a signup bonus. I buy the course and get 10% back from the bank. I then get $2000 in reimbursement for the expense.

42
piman01•

So if you follow both strategies you get to keep $2200

24
dootronomy•

Which card is this?

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

14
island-regolith•

How many cards have you had? :) I imagine you'd be opening and closing a LOT of them

5
g1yk•

Can you elaborate?

1
CreepingJeeping•

r/churning

2
sweetmullet•

I believe we are actually the same person.

1
AverageBasedUser•

hol'up

6
shittyfuckdick•

Oh man that’s fucking brilliant. Is it illegal though?

5
chaos_battery•

I came here to say this. Even better if you take a common vendor name like udemy and use it as the detail line on a stripe transaction and then you just create a stripe account and use that to buy your fake course. Then you get to keep more of the money and none of it goes to those educational platforms.

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

3
KaiSosceles•

I use this money to go to conferences when they’re in places I’d like to visit regardless of the conference.

111
IAMHideoKojimaAMA•

How do you do this with OE tho?

7
KaiSosceles•

Take PTO on J2.

10
FoxyFreckles1989•

Right now I use my biweekly stipend to take Udemy courses and upgrade home office items as needed. It wasn’t until I got into startups/tech companies that I’d even heard of being given money for professional development, so it took some creative thinking. I’m new in this field and soaking up as much as I can, collecting certifications and equipment I need etc. I recently quit J2 and am interviewing for a new one next week. My J1 gives me $200/month towards professional development and pays me $50k. Prospective J2 pays $90-120k (which is unreal, to me) and offers something like $350/month for home office and professional development needs. Until a year ago I’d never even made above $30k let alone had such benefits, so I’m exploring and learning!

106
NinjaWarrior1973•

That’s awesome, I’m currently taking a self study course in software engineering so I can transition to tech as well. How long did it take you to land your first job?

12
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

My guide to landing your first tech job if you are OK with OE:

https://old.reddit.com/r/overemployed/comments/syartg/nonfaang_tech_interviewing_101/hxwtrx7/

Just got a friend his first tech job this way. 102K a year. 3rd person I have helped.

22
Ok_Veterinarian_17•

Which self study course are you taking?

1
NinjaWarrior1973•

RootsTechnology.info

1
shittyfuckdick•

You upgrade office equipment with personal development money?

5
FoxyFreckles1989•

The money is literally called “home office and personal development stipend.” I was told to use it for anything I need for my office or for personal development. “Equipment” could be the thumb drive I bought last week, or the printer/scanner I got last month, or notebooks and highlighters. None of it comes out of my actual paycheck and I’m glad. It adds up! I also just got myself an iPad Air and chose to make payments for six months instead of buying it outright to help my credit. Those payments come out of this stipend, as well as did the three Udemy courses I am currently taking.

8
shittyfuckdick•

Oh nice. I need to see if mine will do that cause papa needs an ultra wide monitor

6
FoxyFreckles1989•

What do you mean, “will do that”? Do they make you submit proof of what you’re spending it on or request it for specific use? Mine is just distributed to me biweekly, so I’m genuinely asking!

5
g1yk•

Are you software engineer?

-1
DaFukTheyDoinOvaDer•

well u can torrent the udemy and donate the money for cancer fund or a helpless child.

-4†
scottyg69•

Just curious. Do you think the udemy creator shouldn’t be compensated for their content? I get that the platform takes a cut, but doesn’t this also disincentivize the creator from making content.

22
DaFukTheyDoinOvaDer•

cancer is more painfull and the guys in here literally takes the position of another persons job , in OE some does 5 jobs . 4 more jobless , funny you doest care about that.

ps : yes , down vote me but its the truth

edit : like i said , facts are hard to swallow , keep voting down lol

-8
FoxyFreckles1989•

Go ahead and pass your judgement. I have my own incredibly painful, deadly disease and I’m working hard to ensure I leave no medical debt behind and am trying to enjoy my own life. See ya!

6
Commercial_Move_9482•

Not sure what your field is, but project management certs are a safe bet for a resume builder.

37
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

I am a software developer. What would be a good path in that area (if you know any that fit with software dev)?

11
[deleted]•

[deleted]

28
the-devops-dude•

I much prefer someone with Professional Scrum Master certification over any Scrum Alliance certification. For Scrum Alliance it’s 100% about money for them. Give some money and sit through a class and congratulations you’re now certified for 2 years until we have make you go through the whole process again (for a handsome fee of course)

Scrum.org certification is much more about making sure you actually know scrum

22
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

Have a link to one you recommend?

4
cuber_dude•

if they will reimburse you

Get some training you care/don't care then get it reimbursed multiple times

23
[deleted]•

[deleted]

16
Mutants_4_nukes•

IANAL but that might be considered fraud, check with an attorney beforehand.

14
errol_timo_malcom•

Yeah, that’s technically fraud.

10
cuber_dude•

And OE isn't? Even if at a lower level. Most contracts say no OE

-13
errol_timo_malcom•

It definitely skirts the line at most businesses. Billing services to different company for the same work depends upon how transfer of ownership of the work/services is handled in the contract.

Training in general uses overhead money - so that’s a company investing in you. How can you bill two companies for the same training? Totally different than if its contract work billed to a customer.

One of the first “tenets of OE” (to call it that) is to not stick your neck out - do your work, don’t become a problem. Doing too much training creates visibility and a company will want a return on their investment.

6
cuber_dude•

I was saying as in the company will reimburse you and so you pay once and get reimbursed multiple times. Essential getting paid to train.

I agree with your last point but that isn't against billing twice it's on getting reimbursement (ops point).

Actually when you say fraud you mean legally or morally? Because legally OE is fraud anyways Morally this sub considers it okay

1
herir•

Going to a tech conference would be my option. Nice break from work, can get you interesting contacts, and you get to see where the market is going so you can position yourself.

The issue is the travel time, I don’t necessarily have free days to travel around.. always have at least a job where I’m on call or I have to deliver a project, so would have to travel with 2 or 3 laptops

20
[deleted]•

[deleted]

14
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

At least in my field, software development seems skeptical of certifications. The few times I have been involved in reviewing resumes, reactions to things like Oracle Certified Associate, Java Programmer have been overwhelmingly negative.

Happy to be proven wrong though or if anyone has anything less programming language driven.

9
ChadlyThe3rd•

Get aws and k8s certs

19
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

Hmm, maybe learning some Devops is the way to go here.

9
ChadlyThe3rd•

I’m a backend SWE but vying for j2 to be devops. I already do a ton of devops work at my current job and it’s so enjoyable and easy

5
IAMHideoKojimaAMA•

K8 mfs stacking bread rn 🍞

7
___GNUSlashLinux___•

As an SRE using k8's daily, I can confirm. Companies throwing piles of cash for k8's experience. Working on my CKA cert to demand even more.

6
ChadlyThe3rd•

Me stacking k8s bread “yeah let’s move this to EKS” 😅

3
meansToMyEnd•

anything AWS

15
PlentyDiscipline449•

I feel that anything cloud is good... my azure and aws certs helped me a bit to stand out among the other candidates, even though they were both the most basic level, it just shows you care about what you do, and if the other candidates aren't certifies at all it's a clear advantage.

I'd also consider scrum and project management certs depending on your career goals, I feel like PM certs if you really study to learn and not to get certified are actually helpful

7
Spare-Ad-3050•

More theoretical stuff can be pretty useful. Coursera/EdX have classes from pretty good professors with some exercises and are fairly cheap, covering a lot of topics you might have missed if you have a CS degree. If you don't have a CS degree, it's a great way to fill in your fundamentals.

Also things like O'Reilly Media, educative.io, or maybe even LeetCode. Lots of books with lots of topics, and I personally like LeetCode for practicing algorithms

3
mystictofuoctopi•

Buy books, reimburse, cancel book order. Or do annual subscriptions, email and ask them to cancel due to a financial limitation. More cash in my pocket.

7
shittyfuckdick•

Is this legal?

1
mystictofuoctopi•

🤷🏻‍♀️ probably not, but they have no way to confirm if I keep the books, return them or sell them secondhand

1
Sayobosse•

Not OE specific but I love to read books to improve myself! So I would spend a part of that money on books. Gives you great looking bookshelves soon too

4
Throwaway4philly1•

Training money?

3
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

I get a budget for professional development/upskilling/training of employees, i.e. me. I actually get it in some form or another at all three jobs.

5
ilikecows7•

That’s really cool to me because The CEO of my company, from what I was told, doesn’t want to do this because he thinks people will leave for a better job.

2
JavaVsJavaScriptOP•

To me that is a signal that there are better jobs out there than this one and should be leaving (well, wait to be terminated for being crap).

6
ilikecows7•

Yup, this subreddit has been like an awakening lol.

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
mcmaster-99•

Yea i was confused at first. Its usually called educational reimbursement.

1
not_a_tenno•

You guys are getting training money? Every time I try to get training at work I'm told to just pay for it myself or there's not enough room in the budget unless someone else gives up their training. I really don't know why I stay at this job lol

3
Fun-Dragonfly-4166•

I think of J1, J2, ..., Jk in terms of a ranking. I actually want to keep J1. Jk is a joke.

In olden times, I would have quit Jk to join J1. But now as long as Jk keeps paying me, I keep laughing; but I am not going to cry when they fire me.

2
cryptocritical9001•

Get a login on https://acloud.guru

Learn Kubernetes, docker, ansible and Terraform.

Do a bunch of certs like CKA, Terraform Associate etc.

All the training is on acloud.guru

If you wanna do some expensive infosec certs look at sans and oscp

3
shittyfuckdick•

This would actually be useful for my career

2
PM_40•

Are you in a management or team leadership position ? There are ton of leadership training available.

2
LordOfTheWeb•

I signed up for something called a mentoring circle for those that are in my role but haven't been there for long (like me). This kind of service may or may not be available for your role but you should definitely check it out because I found it useful so far. We meet once a month over zoom and talk about topics we've all voted on. That ate most of my budget for the year LMAO

2
MyHGC•

Six sigma training maybe (?). Seems folks are always looking for six sigma green/black belts. Sometimes those seem be reasonably cushy jobs.

2
madhousechild•

Take a weeklong course in my newly formed school that I just created seconds after reading your post. The course costs $5,999 and you get half of it back at the end of the week.

2
Really_TK•

I use it on books, conferences, and online courses. I'm in software testing, so attending Testing conferences helps network and also keep updated with what's out there.

1
xyzpqr•

I think the obvious choice is that you start an independent contracting firm training people in skills specialized to your job, and then you pay it to train you.

​

Also your firm should offer a wellness membership/program for $75/month.

1
Aggressive-Dream8872•

I'm a frontend dev and recently I've been looking at learning css inside and out. This course seems really high quality but it's 400 bucks. I'd go for this in a heartbeat if my company is paying for it.

https://css-for-js.dev/

0
gurkalurka•

I find a place I want to visit in the world then find any conference of interest there, sign up for it, expense it. Then I cancel the registration (make sure you are within the 100% reimbursement window) and I get the funds returned. I take a nice vacation to that city fully paid for (or most of it paid for which is good enough). I usually bank all the training funds from j1/j2 and combine them to get a nice trip once per year - and I add pto to the 'training trip' so i get say 3-5 days off afterwards as well.

-2†
Fun-Dragonfly-4166•

If it works good for you. I have nothing against you.

But that sounds like fraud to me. I am not opposed to ripping off the company (eff them). I am opposed to going to prison.

5
rubberduckydracula•

Right. Had me until he said cancel the registration to get reimbursed. That’s fraud.

4