Posted on 3 Comments

Attitude of a training course, training testimonials

A good training is not just running through course materials, otherwise you might as well get them sent to you for a read… it’s about interaction, discussion, questioning, exploring, breaking, baffling the teacher, and also anecdotes and background that make it easier to remember otherwise possibly dry information and apply it in the real world when appropriate.

Funny… I just browsed by the MySQL Training Testimonials page, and noticed that 5 of the entries are actually from courses I taught (I was the trainer). Cool.

“I particularly liked the challenge of solving some problems with the exercises, to put the lessons to practical use.”
—Neil Silvester, Heat and Control Pty Ltd, Brisbane QLD

“Thanks for a very interesting and informative training course, I have been able to put what I learned on the course to good use already, ensuring that our servers and MySQL databases are running at their optimal performance levels now, as a direct result of what I learned.
—Rob Spijkerman, Allied Telesyn Research, Christchurch NZ

“I particularly liked the informal nature of the course, and the small group size encourages interaction.”
—Andreas Heydler, CDC Systems, Minto NSW

“What I particularly liked about this course was the real life examples. I could definitely put what I learnt to immediate use!”
—Drew Toussaint, Richardson-Shaw Pty Ltd, Wodonga VIC

“The trainer was great – nice manner, good at getting/keeping on task.”
—Paul Kennett, University of Waikato, Hamilton NZL

Of course this is a blatant self-plug and that’s how it works, since I’m doing my own thing with Open Query now and as it’s a new brand name and business, I really do market using my own name. Plus people prefer to deal with people, not faceless corporations of any kind. You get helped by a person, not a company. Right?

But I don’t have to rely on my former employer’s testimonial page (although it is entertaining in a way), I’m also lucky to have a good set of recommendations in my LinkedIn profile.

And once my own first courses have run (October), hopefully I’ll get some remarks – preferably saying positive things 😉

Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “Attitude of a training course, training testimonials

  1. Arjen, how cool. You’re now doing marketing!

    –Zack

  2. Which corporation are you suggesting is faceless? Surely not the one where you arranged user’s conferences and were a trainer, or did you recover your own lost face somehow?

  3. Surely there’s no disagreement that many corporations are completely faceless.
    I do think MySQL AB does (way) better than that, but I also think it’s important to acknowledge that it’s not perfect and that it has lost some of its face during growth. Not acknowledging that would be bad, as it would prevent it from being seen as something that can always use improvement.
    Or do you reckon something like that can be “good enough” or “perfect” ?

    From the training end, I just know what I heard from students about other courses they’d been to.

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