Boost Your Career with Professional Classes

Kiplinger's tells the story of a woman who took some professional graphic design classes and ended up with a promotion. For a $990 investment, she was promoted from administrative assistant to a Web-content and graphic designer. 

Think this made financial sense for her? Sure. Let's say she was making $30,000 as an assistant and then got a 10% raise with the promotion. In effect, that $990 earned her $3,000 in the first year alone. Compound that over a few decades and add in cost-of-living raises at a now higher salary level (a 3% raise at $33,000 a year is obviously more than a 3% raise at $30,000) and it becomes a really, really great investment.

It's even better if the company pays for the classes. Many do, but probably hers didn't -- the article isn't clear but it implies that she paid for it on her own.

I've said many times before that managing your career to get ahead (like this lady did) can have significant financial benefits for you. It can literally earn you millions of dollars more than what you would have had otherwise over the course of your career. (FYI, another way to get ahead financially in your career is to ask for a raise.)

Anyone else taken classes or seminars to get ahead in your career? Maybe it wasn't a full promotion, but maybe a class or series of classes got you a better position, some salary or benefits increases or something similar. If so, please share your story with the rest of us.

Comments

[Edmund]

I haven't really gone to any classes since I left.

However, I have bought many books to learn by myself. Before I got my current job, I knew what programming language I need to know. I bought a book for $50 and spent a month learning as much as I could.

It was well worth the investment, as I am now making 3 times as much as I used to.

[cindy@staged4more]

It's funny how I was just thinking about this couple days ago... I am a big fan of continue education but sometimes I wonder if it is worth it?

I am a stager who stages and styles homes to make them show ready to sell. I have my own company and obviously since I work for myself, I can set my own pay scale. I am a big fan of continue education, and I have been taking a lot of classes for continue ed. I didn't raised my hourly rate till recently (after 1.5 years in the industry) since I feel that now that I have a lot more projects under my belt and also I have invested a significant amount of money to do so, I deserve a little raise. ;)

But this got me thinking. What happens when I reach the top of the pay scale in my industry? Also the clients in my field usually want what is the cheapest bid price as possible, they don't really care for the other factors and the reasons why I justify what I charge.

Anyway, so far I feel that continue education has helped me to be more confident through being equipped with more industry knowledge and learn from others' experiences. Moreover, it is great to network at these classes with people who are like minded and are passionate about the industry enough to do continue education. I have also been contemplating of going back to school for a MBA to push my business up a level. But they will be several years more down the line.

Cheers,

Cindy