Ten Words or Less About a New Career and Training
Training is a business expense that is often the first to go when things are tough for a company. Some marketing costs are also treated badly when the economy is sluggish as it is now and has been for over five years. This kind of cost-cutting mentality becomes even more severe when an activity such as sales training involves both training and marketing. One solution is for individuals to look at potential careers more closely beforehand to see how training will be obtained for a particular position or career.
With this in mind, here are several concise observations about training and careers that should be helpful. These comments apply equally to sales training and most other variations of career training.
- Individualized training is critical for most new career choices.
- Referring business for referral fees can be effective and profitable.
- Asking the right questions will help avoid serious mistakes.
- New careers can be part-time or a second job.
- You usually get what you pay for with free training.
Three of these statements will be analyzed in more detail below.
A Special Note: Business Identity Theft and Content Theft on the Internet
The content on this page appears (without legal permission) in a variety of locations throughout the internet without any credit whatsoever to the author, Stephen Bush (that would be me). This is not the first time this has happened to me, but it is time for such internet thievery to be stopped. This is nothing less than a new variation of business identity theft. Thankfully Google has embarked on a challenging mission to identify illegal and irresponsible duplicate content from the face of the internet earth. In the meantime, readers are rightfully confused. In a variation of “Don’t shoot the messenger,” please blame the growing population of internet content thieves for this confusion rather than the ethical writers who produced the original writing.
The Right Career Questions
A few words about problems and questions are in order. Asking the right questions is of critical importance, and some key career and training questions will be identified below. Determining potential problems in advance is usually a smart business strategy, and this is evident with training and career issues. Here is a short list of problem areas to avoid for sales training and careers:
- Lack of individualized and customized training
- Not enough geographic mobility
- Rigid schedules
- Not having a Plan B
- Asking the wrong questions
- Expecting different results when trying the same thing over again
It is advisable to look at sales training and careers from a fresh perspective because there have been a number of structural changes in employment during the past thirty years or so. Training and career strategies that worked before are simply not as successful now. A prudent starting point when evaluating career and training opportunities is to formulate a series of relevant questions.
- "Asking the right questions will help avoid serious mistakes" is applicable to many aspects of life and business in addition to sales training and careers.
As noted above, not only was it suggested that the right questions are a vital ingredient in your career training recipe but it was also emphasized that asking the wrong questions is a key problem area to avoid. Here are seven of the right questions for many training and career situations:
- Why should I consider paying for specialized training?
- Can a new career be part-time and/or a second job?
- Is individualized training available?
- What are practical career options if I want to work at home?
- Can training be customized for each individual?
- What are realistic business, finance and real estate career choices?
- What is a referral agent or referral specialist?
Although it might seem at first glance that some of the above questions are not relevant to your specific circumstances, it is strongly advised that this line of questioning be pursued anyway. Careers, employment, and training have changed more than most people realize, and it is likely to be more productive than you might initially realize to look at everything a little differently. The above questions should help in this effort.
Final New Career Thoughts
The final thoughts in this article will revolve around two of the initial observations:
- "Individualized training is critical for most new career choices" and the related comment, "You usually get what you pay for with free training."
Many careers have become more specialized during the past two decades. This has enhanced the importance of obtaining specialized and individualized training to prepare adequately for these careers. Please recall the statement at the beginning of this article when it was observed that training costs are often the first to be cut by many companies. Be careful what you wish for if you think that you want "free" training.