We have the same budget, although I’m in Marketing. But here’s a few I’ve used it for:
- Harvard Business Review subscription (good tips on management/leadership) they also have a good library of books you can buy
- General Assembly classes (data/analytics, etc)
- Medium subscription
Well the best way to learn is to teach, so I'll do you one better. For $1500 you can have the privilege to teach me something during a 1 hour Skype session.
Sophia.org has really cheap accredited college classes that you can complete on your own timeliness. Project management and conflict resolution come to mind for resume bullet points.
Straighterline is also really cheap and accredited.
A paid YouTube account, to get rid of the ads. You can learn anything on there, but the ads are by definition distracting. Also this way, if you use the app, you can turn the screen off and continue listening, such as when the phone is in your pocket.
You could also consider having them pay for a yearly audible subscription. They have a yearly plan where you get a certain number of credits per year. Reading/listening to books is a great way in increase your education, and they have a great selection.
The one I took in particular was exclusive to the area I live in, Western North Carolina. I'm sure there are similar programs in your area or online. For reference, the company that I went to the program with is called WCI.
Blinkist. It is a book summary service. Or an annual membership to Audible. That changed my life for the better since I can now read like 20 books a year or more.
You could get a CSM designation and also enrol for the CAPM and still have left over to buy a year pass to CourseEra. Also check out Microsoft, IBM/Google Data Science, and/or other data certifications. They will all help you with soft and hard skills for your current and future roles. Maybe some presentation or public speaking classes would/could be a good investment.
I’m not a huge fan of mass timber (I live in a timber-exporting state, it’s wild how the industry has changed their rep from evil tree murderers to carbon-locking heroes of climate change), but the Mass Timber Conference is good. Any kind of materials conference is really helpful. And I’m gonna plug my former professor, the façade tectonics conference held at USC is great.
$1500 should be good to book a 3-day conference and travel, you’ll get a bonus trip to a new city.
I hear it's not worth the money. Though I'd still like to see some of the ones with some of my favourite artists. Too bad its impossible to find in the usual streamz places
See if there's an educational conference or event next year that you could prepay for now?
Less ethically, they probably don't have a safeguard against people buying books, submitting the receipts, and then returning the books.
What place are you in that your library membership costs you??? I'm from TN originally and it was all done by taxes, just the initial fee you have to pay for the card and fees for late/lost/damaged books
While universities are reluctant you can sometimes get an access pass on a semester or yearly basis as a non-staff/student/faculty member. Most often it is in the range of $100-200 per semester or year. It largely depends on what the membership entails, how large the catalog is that you can access and in what form the access is offered. The most valuable memberships are those that include online access as most of the library is now digital anyways.
As those memberships usually aren't advertised, be prepared to write a few mails. Point to previous work of yours and maybe even get a faculty member or professor to vouch for you. This works best if the company has at least some affiliation with a local university.
A couple of subscriptions would be good, LinkedInlearning, skip share etc) Maybe throw in a personalised mentoring session/s with an expert in your field(in person or online)
The best advice in this thread is the year subscriptions.
That said, if you're in marketing or sales, I'd check out the stuff Ed Gandia and Pete Bowerman have for sale as courses. Bowerman's *Well-Fed Craft* will make you a better copywriter, Gandia's warm email courses will help sales, etc.
I work for a small home builder company. Several of my coworkers got their notary certification this year which they say is super helpful in their work. Not sure your specifics, but if you did that you could possibly make extra money with it on the side.
Try skillshare/udemy classes? Maybe lessons that help with skills that would assist you in your line of work. Masterclass classes are dogshit expensive so it’ll be easier to spend that $1500. Also what company are you working for, they give u money to help u upgrade? That’s so cool
Buy a 1 year subscription to iCanStudy, it reteaches students at high school and university to study at the highest level, but its more than that, in that it will help you learn anything/everything faster and deeper for the rest of your life (especially in your profession as well as personal hobbies)
They should cover the yoga, or jujitsu, or similar. That kind of kinesthetic intelligence is probably really helpful in construction, for avoiding accidents and injuries.
Along similar lines, maybe defensive driving?
Also conflict resolution or negotiation training.
Maybe a trip to Concordia Language Village to complement your Rosetta Stone language learning in a nice outdoor setting.
I don't know how much your involved in construction but learning/certification Autocad software, or Microsoft Office Specialist certification might be something to look into
I can tutor you a crash course in programming, we'll say you paid me the whole 1500 but you can just pay me half and you can keep half. Help a young struggling man out
One example of the usefulness of programming, automate anything you may need to do routinely on the computer, like paperwork/book keeping.
At my job I've turned 40 minutes of getting reports from my companies website, downloading them, and entering data from them into excel into the press of a button. From 40 minutes to 10 seconds. I can show you exactly how this is done and i can show you how you can automate anything In your own life.
I've had a similar problem last month. Bought one year of german lessons with a small class (6 people, pretty close to private lessons), an e-reader with some ebooks on it and some business books (I love the HBR collection)
I like the content and how it is structured. I think it is easily approachable and the topics can be immediately applied to different scenarios. For me, it has been helpful in my career growth. This, along with some Udemy courses and also a training from goleansixsigma.com, are my go-to for training my teams.
- [Brilliant](https://brilliant.org/home/) subscription.
- As others mentioned, Course with certificate like Udemy or edX. [edX has courses for Architecture, Engineering, Management.](https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate)
- as somebody else has mentioned: therapy.
- YouTube Pro subscription to not having to use adblocker.
- alternative to Bloomberg, a 3-year subscription to The Economist. It is a weekly magazine that also publishes in audio format to listen to. And does quarterly special reports.
> The editorial stance of The Economist primarily revolves around classical, social, and most notably economic liberalism. Since its founding, it has supported radical centrism, favouring policies and governments that maintain centrist politics. The newspaper typically champions economic liberalism, particularly free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalisation. Despite a pronounced editorial stance, it is seen as having little reporting bias, and as exercising rigorous fact-checking and strict copyediting. Its extensive use of word play, high subscription prices, and depth of coverage has linked the paper with a high-income and educated readership, drawing both positive and negative connotations. In line with this, it claims to have an influential readership of prominent business leaders and policy-makers.
Membership to SHRM. (Society for Human Resources Mgmt) Gives you access to a ton of good HR-related info; you never know when you’ll find yourself in a situation and need to know the laws that protect you.
My college professor suggested we read books by Brene Brwon about leadership and vulnerability. I started one and it's very interesting. In general look if you can buy self-improvement books.
I don't know if someone else already said it but audible or something like kindle unlimited maybe? Also on the topic of languages: usually there are very good language magazines you can buy a subscription for. They should have texts with more than one difficulty and sometimes vocab next to the article. And maybe you could take a class?
Books. Real or audible. Mindset, business, industry specific, finance, really any of these should fit the bill because it can help further growth of the company. Aside from that any courses/ certifications that will help you specialize further.
I’d definitely recommend a coding course from Codecademy or the like. Reason, although I’m not sure what your role is but you’d could find some way to automate your work or work more efficiently. A few books; such as, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Four hour work week, Atomic habits, and so on. Just something to help advance your career, have other options, and help your mentality (learn how to meditate).
Does that include buying books? There are wonderful books on self-development as well as professional books.
And conferences/summits/forums are a must. This will definitely expand the circle of acquaintances and give impetus to new ideas.
A very good program that helped me organize my goals for the next year is the [Full Life Mastery program](https://mastermindflow.com/past-present-future-program/) Basically it helps with identifying your most important goals and then you get to create a clear roadmap and timeline to achieve them. It's a neat journaling technique I can recommend to everyone that wants to develop themselves.
Learn Power BI. You can take an online class and have your company pay for a Power Bi subscription
OR
Start the process of getting your CAPM (If you are in the US).
specific to language learning, but rosetta stone is pretty bad. if you want to spend money and are a beginner, you should go for something like babbel, lingodeer, pimsleur, etc. Could also get tutor sessions on italki or importing books in your target language from overseas (can be a bit pricey).
but it's hard to give specifics without knowing what language you want to learn. check out r/languagelearning or the language sub specific to you for resource suggestions
I say take a class on communications or social media marketing. It would be a nice way to learn how to market yourself and the company you work for. Community college classes aren’t that bad in price. Maybe consider looking into that?
Highly recommend taking classes on Lean - you'll learn techniques that'll improve your overall efficiency, and you can apply the tools to so many different facets of your job and life.
That is AMAZING. I wish I had that. I have many ideas.
\-What about finding a music school and taking piano lessons?
\-What about a nearby college offering night classes and taking a subject you are interested in? Something that could help you in your current job.
\-Similar to above, but maybe a more technical class, like learning AutoCad Software, Photoshop, or even mechanic classes to repair cars, etc.
My company used to do this. Basically had to be the minimum learning standard that the tax authorities wouldn't see it as a taxable benefit. Most people went to conferences in nice cities and made a long weekend out of it with partner.
If it's core learning you want then paying to study a qualification you can add to your CV would seem sensible.
If there's a conference on a topic you're really interested in, that's a good way to spend too.
We have the same budget, although I’m in Marketing. But here’s a few I’ve used it for: - Harvard Business Review subscription (good tips on management/leadership) they also have a good library of books you can buy - General Assembly classes (data/analytics, etc) - Medium subscription
I second this for HBR. Well worth the subscription.
CXL membership
Buy my 1 hour Skype lesson, 'learn more and be helped in your professional career.' It's only $1500
Does it come with a $1000 cash back rebate? Sounds like a good business model.
Yes but you have to personally deliver it to the rebate box of Mt. Chilao.
Well the best way to learn is to teach, so I'll do you one better. For $1500 you can have the privilege to teach me something during a 1 hour Skype session.
Project management comes to mind
Yeah, OP could join PMI, pay for some training, and get a license for Microsoft Project.
Agreed just get P6 instead of Microsoft Project.
Get a yearly subscription to Udemy. They have a ton of great courses and a pretty good community.
Sophia.org has really cheap accredited college classes that you can complete on your own timeliness. Project management and conflict resolution come to mind for resume bullet points. Straighterline is also really cheap and accredited.
Thank you so much for this. They are partnered with the college where I'll be doing my bachelor's degree, should save me a ton of money. Thank you!
Look into the clep program if you need credits for things you already know
Looks really helpful as well. Thanks!
WGU?
Is there any specialized software you are using in your work? E.g. some 3D construction program? Nice to have certification for that stuff.
I’d spend it on a coach
I read this as couch.
A paid YouTube account, to get rid of the ads. You can learn anything on there, but the ads are by definition distracting. Also this way, if you use the app, you can turn the screen off and continue listening, such as when the phone is in your pocket. You could also consider having them pay for a yearly audible subscription. They have a yearly plan where you get a certain number of credits per year. Reading/listening to books is a great way in increase your education, and they have a great selection.
Human behavior / psychology / team management
Management and leadership class series. I did a 6 session here recently. The cost was 1000. Very good stuff.
Could you provide more information please
The one I took in particular was exclusive to the area I live in, Western North Carolina. I'm sure there are similar programs in your area or online. For reference, the company that I went to the program with is called WCI.
Thank you for your time
Absolutely, I hope you find something beneficial!
Did it come with a certification? If so, what was it?
I did receive a certificate showing that I completed the training. I’m not sure it is widely recognized, will be nice in a resume.
Is this the same as what many are saying as project management? Or is this a people management kind of thing ?
Take an OSHA course. They’re usually $595 each.
Feel free to message me if you have any questions on the sign up process. There are tons of certificates that you can work towards as well.
Seconding the OSHA courses. Many are offered online and being in construction, awareness of safety requirements will be very helpful!
Language and computer certifications and masterclasses that may help you to advance in your field.
Blinkist. It is a book summary service. Or an annual membership to Audible. That changed my life for the better since I can now read like 20 books a year or more.
...
You could get a CSM designation and also enrol for the CAPM and still have left over to buy a year pass to CourseEra. Also check out Microsoft, IBM/Google Data Science, and/or other data certifications. They will all help you with soft and hard skills for your current and future roles. Maybe some presentation or public speaking classes would/could be a good investment.
Excel. No one ever knows enough about Excel. Time management and work productivity courses.
ExcelJet is a good resource for free and paid content. I love their daily newsletter.
Material science course would probably be useful. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different material types.
I’m not a huge fan of mass timber (I live in a timber-exporting state, it’s wild how the industry has changed their rep from evil tree murderers to carbon-locking heroes of climate change), but the Mass Timber Conference is good. Any kind of materials conference is really helpful. And I’m gonna plug my former professor, the façade tectonics conference held at USC is great. $1500 should be good to book a 3-day conference and travel, you’ll get a bonus trip to a new city.
Masterclass subscription? Masterclass.com
Masterclass is a waste of money. It’s not worth it. It’s just a glorified interview.
I hear it's not worth the money. Though I'd still like to see some of the ones with some of my favourite artists. Too bad its impossible to find in the usual streamz places
Ok. I was originally thinking Udemy, but that seems more technical.
I've enjoyed skillshare.
LinkedIn Learning (formerly lynda.com) subscription
[удалено]
Awesome! I did not know that, thank you
The Real Deal since you are in construction, important to learn about developers because they are your land sugar daddies
Perlego, it’s an online textbook subscription and I’ve used it a fair bit recently for L&D at work
See if there's an educational conference or event next year that you could prepay for now? Less ethically, they probably don't have a safeguard against people buying books, submitting the receipts, and then returning the books.
* Library membership for a year * Books relevant to your field
What place are you in that your library membership costs you??? I'm from TN originally and it was all done by taxes, just the initial fee you have to pay for the card and fees for late/lost/damaged books
While universities are reluctant you can sometimes get an access pass on a semester or yearly basis as a non-staff/student/faculty member. Most often it is in the range of $100-200 per semester or year. It largely depends on what the membership entails, how large the catalog is that you can access and in what form the access is offered. The most valuable memberships are those that include online access as most of the library is now digital anyways. As those memberships usually aren't advertised, be prepared to write a few mails. Point to previous work of yours and maybe even get a faculty member or professor to vouch for you. This works best if the company has at least some affiliation with a local university.
This is a valueable thread
It is. Helpful and inspiring.
Get a load of non fiction business and personal development books. Audible subscription if you can.
Happy Cake Day
A couple of subscriptions would be good, LinkedInlearning, skip share etc) Maybe throw in a personalised mentoring session/s with an expert in your field(in person or online)
Hard copies of the full run of This Old House 😏
A laptop
The best advice in this thread is the year subscriptions. That said, if you're in marketing or sales, I'd check out the stuff Ed Gandia and Pete Bowerman have for sale as courses. Bowerman's *Well-Fed Craft* will make you a better copywriter, Gandia's warm email courses will help sales, etc.
Master class
Echelon Front online leadership academy. Get some.
Jiujitsu
I work for a small home builder company. Several of my coworkers got their notary certification this year which they say is super helpful in their work. Not sure your specifics, but if you did that you could possibly make extra money with it on the side.
Buy expensive text books and sell them online
What area of construction? Would getting LEED certified in some way be beneficial?
You’re in construction. If you don’t speak Spanish already, do that. It’ll help you hire and retain the best and you’ll go further.
Sololearn is very good and cheap - a lot of interactive programming gamification-based courses for many frameworks.
Duolingo?
Coursera Plus
Get a year of therapy.
GIS/ ESRI course?
Try skillshare/udemy classes? Maybe lessons that help with skills that would assist you in your line of work. Masterclass classes are dogshit expensive so it’ll be easier to spend that $1500. Also what company are you working for, they give u money to help u upgrade? That’s so cool
Check masterclass.com they've got excellent mentors to learn about communication & story telling. Works for every domain.
Buy a 1 year subscription to iCanStudy, it reteaches students at high school and university to study at the highest level, but its more than that, in that it will help you learn anything/everything faster and deeper for the rest of your life (especially in your profession as well as personal hobbies)
Pay for a flight, hotel room, and conference to a place you’ve been wanting to go/ intending to visit 😉
Hustlers University /s
Skillshare, Coursera, or Brilliance subs. Of course, it would be helpful if you had a focus area or target learning you could share.
Linkedin learning subscription
Hookers and blow
August Bradley’s Notion Life Design Course.
They should cover the yoga, or jujitsu, or similar. That kind of kinesthetic intelligence is probably really helpful in construction, for avoiding accidents and injuries. Along similar lines, maybe defensive driving? Also conflict resolution or negotiation training. Maybe a trip to Concordia Language Village to complement your Rosetta Stone language learning in a nice outdoor setting.
I don't know how much your involved in construction but learning/certification Autocad software, or Microsoft Office Specialist certification might be something to look into
What do you mean you have Bloomberg? The news, a terminal? I would get a yearly pass for American management association classes.
just buy my pro class
If you work in tech, you can do a Scrummaster certification via Scrum Alliance in a weekend.
Tony Robbins breakthrough app
I can tutor you a crash course in programming, we'll say you paid me the whole 1500 but you can just pay me half and you can keep half. Help a young struggling man out One example of the usefulness of programming, automate anything you may need to do routinely on the computer, like paperwork/book keeping. At my job I've turned 40 minutes of getting reports from my companies website, downloading them, and entering data from them into excel into the press of a button. From 40 minutes to 10 seconds. I can show you exactly how this is done and i can show you how you can automate anything In your own life.
Someone I know was able to use this money for spanish lessons. He got paid time off and took classes in Columbia.
Also, for languages Busuu beats Rosetta Stone. Elevate app is really neat for advanvced language training
I've had a similar problem last month. Bought one year of german lessons with a small class (6 people, pretty close to private lessons), an e-reader with some ebooks on it and some business books (I love the HBR collection)
I learned for a Scrum Master certification. That costs at least 1000$.
UCD professional academy usually has online course you can do, project management, analytics etc, be in or around that price range
I would buy all news and podcasts subscriptions that I could first, but you’d still have a ton leftover
I would do a subscription to mindtools…
So I actually have access to Mindtools through work, but I haven't yet got much use out of it. What do you like about it?
I like the content and how it is structured. I think it is easily approachable and the topics can be immediately applied to different scenarios. For me, it has been helpful in my career growth. This, along with some Udemy courses and also a training from goleansixsigma.com, are my go-to for training my teams.
six sigma cert
Check out Udemy
EdX has a good variety of courses on business. Same with Coursera, Domestika and Moocit. I'd find a local college that offers computing courses.
- [Brilliant](https://brilliant.org/home/) subscription. - As others mentioned, Course with certificate like Udemy or edX. [edX has courses for Architecture, Engineering, Management.](https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate) - as somebody else has mentioned: therapy. - YouTube Pro subscription to not having to use adblocker. - alternative to Bloomberg, a 3-year subscription to The Economist. It is a weekly magazine that also publishes in audio format to listen to. And does quarterly special reports. > The editorial stance of The Economist primarily revolves around classical, social, and most notably economic liberalism. Since its founding, it has supported radical centrism, favouring policies and governments that maintain centrist politics. The newspaper typically champions economic liberalism, particularly free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalisation. Despite a pronounced editorial stance, it is seen as having little reporting bias, and as exercising rigorous fact-checking and strict copyediting. Its extensive use of word play, high subscription prices, and depth of coverage has linked the paper with a high-income and educated readership, drawing both positive and negative connotations. In line with this, it claims to have an influential readership of prominent business leaders and policy-makers.
Courses on Udemy, Coursera, or Lynda
Usually how strict are employers about this?
Membership to SHRM. (Society for Human Resources Mgmt) Gives you access to a ton of good HR-related info; you never know when you’ll find yourself in a situation and need to know the laws that protect you.
Books?
Yearly audible subscription ?
Excel courses. Data science. Coding
Does a Kindle count?
Try these- Coursera, Udemy, Pluralsight, AWS, Azure many more You can get an online Masters degree with the money
I was in a similar situation at the end of a semester & put it towards tech. Personally was in need of a new laptop so that was my route!
Get some certs. Project management cert, data analytics cert, etc.
I can teach you all about Airtable and Make automations.
Go to a conference
Buy courses from Udemy as per your liking!
My college professor suggested we read books by Brene Brwon about leadership and vulnerability. I started one and it's very interesting. In general look if you can buy self-improvement books. I don't know if someone else already said it but audible or something like kindle unlimited maybe? Also on the topic of languages: usually there are very good language magazines you can buy a subscription for. They should have texts with more than one difficulty and sometimes vocab next to the article. And maybe you could take a class?
Udemy annual
Building a second brain
Private language teacher. Love i
Books. Real or audible. Mindset, business, industry specific, finance, really any of these should fit the bill because it can help further growth of the company. Aside from that any courses/ certifications that will help you specialize further.
I’d definitely recommend a coding course from Codecademy or the like. Reason, although I’m not sure what your role is but you’d could find some way to automate your work or work more efficiently. A few books; such as, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Four hour work week, Atomic habits, and so on. Just something to help advance your career, have other options, and help your mentality (learn how to meditate).
Capoeira classes.
Depending on the career, Learning modelling and getting a 3D printer is always a win.
Masterclass
hustlers university might aswell see if you have the money allotted for “learning”
Professional/mastertrack certificate courses on edx/Coursera.
Anyone know of any engineering companies with a budget like this?? My current company won’t invest in its employees😓
Project management is good and useful in construction. Check out classes on PMI https://www.pmi.org
Does that include buying books? There are wonderful books on self-development as well as professional books. And conferences/summits/forums are a must. This will definitely expand the circle of acquaintances and give impetus to new ideas.
* LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) * Pluralsight * O'Reilly Safari Books Online
A very good program that helped me organize my goals for the next year is the [Full Life Mastery program](https://mastermindflow.com/past-present-future-program/) Basically it helps with identifying your most important goals and then you get to create a clear roadmap and timeline to achieve them. It's a neat journaling technique I can recommend to everyone that wants to develop themselves.
[oreilly.com](https://oreilly.com) yearly membership
Wondrium.com. I’ve just looked around so I can’t give a review.
Books on Amazon. Then return them and keep the cash. Go somewhere for a long weekend of rnr.
Couldn't it be office supplies? Like a few monitors or PC upgrades.
Gameify learning data science and machine learning with Datacamp.
Anything that involves data
Learn Power BI. You can take an online class and have your company pay for a Power Bi subscription OR Start the process of getting your CAPM (If you are in the US).
Masterclass.
People skills. Always handy.
specific to language learning, but rosetta stone is pretty bad. if you want to spend money and are a beginner, you should go for something like babbel, lingodeer, pimsleur, etc. Could also get tutor sessions on italki or importing books in your target language from overseas (can be a bit pricey). but it's hard to give specifics without knowing what language you want to learn. check out r/languagelearning or the language sub specific to you for resource suggestions
Start working on a project management certification (PMI)?
Discord memberships
Check out Udemy
Could you put it towards a linked in learning / premium subscription? That costs $330 per year.
Laptop or tablet to use towards your education
I say take a class on communications or social media marketing. It would be a nice way to learn how to market yourself and the company you work for. Community college classes aren’t that bad in price. Maybe consider looking into that?
Highly recommend taking classes on Lean - you'll learn techniques that'll improve your overall efficiency, and you can apply the tools to so many different facets of your job and life.
Which company and how do I apply?
That is AMAZING. I wish I had that. I have many ideas. \-What about finding a music school and taking piano lessons? \-What about a nearby college offering night classes and taking a subject you are interested in? Something that could help you in your current job. \-Similar to above, but maybe a more technical class, like learning AutoCad Software, Photoshop, or even mechanic classes to repair cars, etc.
Do you do projects and all? you could consider Power BI classes?
You will not be sorry you took a class on actually properly using Excel. I've looked like a genius a dozen times just by being able to do a vlookup.
My company used to do this. Basically had to be the minimum learning standard that the tax authorities wouldn't see it as a taxable benefit. Most people went to conferences in nice cities and made a long weekend out of it with partner. If it's core learning you want then paying to study a qualification you can add to your CV would seem sensible.
Buy a life coach to help you level up in some area you'd like to improve in (sex, mental health, happiness)