Firstly apologies for posting this in the Installing umbraco section but this forum doesn't have an introduce yourself or general chat section.
I currently work as an ASP.Net developer in Birmingham UK but I am planning to leave early next year to work with my business partner providing websites / development under our own company. We are working evenings / weekends until then trying to build up a business.
We are currently building multiple sites requiring CMS (one is our own) and have selected umbraco. Right from the start umbraco felt "just right". Many thanks for developing such a great product, hopefully soon I will be in a position to give something back and write a package for other users.
I'm considering the training running next month in London and wanted peoples honest opinion on whether it is worth while for me. I know this is probably a biased place to ask such a question! The reason behind my question is that I'm comfortable in the technology and willing to put in the work to find out solutions to problems we hit so the training probably isn't a necessity for us to develop sites. It's money we could do without spending while starting this business if the qualification itself isn't going to bring in extra cash. A quick search in elance, odesk and this forum didn't really throw up many jobs where people are looking for umbraco developers. Our current customers do not care which CMS platform we use let alone that we are certified in it.
Having said all of that I love learning, would like to get involved in this community and would look forward to meeting other umbraco developers.
Certification aside, training is never a bad thing and can be a great way to kick-start your umbraco education. I understand you concern regarding cost and if you're like most developers you are a serial self-educator. If you're worried about price you might want to ask yourself what it actually costs to figure it out yourself in terms of man hours for you or your business partner. What's the cost of incorrectly or inefficiently setting up your site structure?
The hidden value of training is to network with other users in the community and pull insights from people who have gone before.
If nothing else I would at least subscribe to umbraco.tv.
Many thanks for you replies, I think I will subscribe to umbraco tv for the time being and keep an eye on this forum. I agree with trying to work out the cost saving gained from not having to dig out answers but my current experience with umbraco has been very pleasant and head scratching free.
If you're new to Umbraco, I highly recommend the umbraco lvl 1 training. Even if you're not new, I guarantee you'll learn something new about it during training. 4 developers here at Gecko went through lvl1 training last month with Doug Robar and we all found it very useful, despite having used umbraco for production sites for over a year.
It isn't cheap, but already we have noticed an increased awareness of Umbraco within our sector and region, so for us having a differentiator (certified solution provider) between us and other similar companies using the system can only be beneficial. We've already had a phone inquiry from a major potential client based on finding our umbraco blog posts.
That has to be balanced with the cost of the course, but if it even wins you one job it's worthwhile. to balance my pro-training slant, you can learn an awful lot just by diving into umbraco.tv/runway/cws/the forum and getting your hands dirty.
Thinking of the umbraco training
Firstly apologies for posting this in the Installing umbraco section but this forum doesn't have an introduce yourself or general chat section.
I currently work as an ASP.Net developer in Birmingham UK but I am planning to leave early next year to work with my business partner providing websites / development under our own company. We are working evenings / weekends until then trying to build up a business.
We are currently building multiple sites requiring CMS (one is our own) and have selected umbraco. Right from the start umbraco felt "just right". Many thanks for developing such a great product, hopefully soon I will be in a position to give something back and write a package for other users.
I'm considering the training running next month in London and wanted peoples honest opinion on whether it is worth while for me. I know this is probably a biased place to ask such a question! The reason behind my question is that I'm comfortable in the technology and willing to put in the work to find out solutions to problems we hit so the training probably isn't a necessity for us to develop sites. It's money we could do without spending while starting this business if the qualification itself isn't going to bring in extra cash. A quick search in elance, odesk and this forum didn't really throw up many jobs where people are looking for umbraco developers. Our current customers do not care which CMS platform we use let alone that we are certified in it.
Having said all of that I love learning, would like to get involved in this community and would look forward to meeting other umbraco developers.
Difficult decision eh!
Certification aside, training is never a bad thing and can be a great way to kick-start your umbraco education. I understand you concern regarding cost and if you're like most developers you are a serial self-educator. If you're worried about price you might want to ask yourself what it actually costs to figure it out yourself in terms of man hours for you or your business partner. What's the cost of incorrectly or inefficiently setting up your site structure?
The hidden value of training is to network with other users in the community and pull insights from people who have gone before.
If nothing else I would at least subscribe to umbraco.tv.
Good luck in whatever you choose.
I recently undertook the UK training course, you can read my thoughts here http://our.umbraco.org/forum/meetups-and-usergroups/suggest-a-meetup/3514-Anyone-in-the-UK-interested-in-Umbraco-Level-1-Training?p=1
Many thanks for you replies, I think I will subscribe to umbraco tv for the time being and keep an eye on this forum. I agree with trying to work out the cost saving gained from not having to dig out answers but my current experience with umbraco has been very pleasant and head scratching free.
If you're new to Umbraco, I highly recommend the umbraco lvl 1 training. Even if you're not new, I guarantee you'll learn something new about it during training. 4 developers here at Gecko went through lvl1 training last month with Doug Robar and we all found it very useful, despite having used umbraco for production sites for over a year.
It isn't cheap, but already we have noticed an increased awareness of Umbraco within our sector and region, so for us having a differentiator (certified solution provider) between us and other similar companies using the system can only be beneficial. We've already had a phone inquiry from a major potential client based on finding our umbraco blog posts.
That has to be balanced with the cost of the course, but if it even wins you one job it's worthwhile. to balance my pro-training slant, you can learn an awful lot just by diving into umbraco.tv/runway/cws/the forum and getting your hands dirty.
Good luck,
Dan
After all of the positive comments I have decided to go for the training. Thanks everyone!
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