[TriLUG] Class seat available

[David Both]

Magnus, I thought about whether to reply to this or not, but I think it is a 
valid question posed as a statement. And I think it deserves some response in 
the name of ALL trainers. I do not take this in any way personally and would 
love to buy you a beer sometime.

The simple answer is that, if you can teach, you might be in the wrong business. 
I love it and enjoy all aspects of it. But consider the following. Trainers work 
very hard and not just during classes.

I have spent years creating coursework and doing training at IBM, Cisco, and 
other places I have worked. I have had months of training in how to write 
courses of all kinds and weeks of training in presentation skills.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes about one week of work to create one 
hour of stand-up lecture / lab training - if you are doing it right. So for a 5 
day class that is about 40 weeks. We are talking about real training here - the 
nuts and bolts and not just the covers. I think it is important to teach WHY 
things are done the way they are, and how to think about resolving problems in a 
Linux environment, not just force-feed you a long list of commands to memorize.

And yes, it did take that long both then and now. For this class I created 492 
slides and 62 pages of lab projects. All of this was created from scratch by me 
and me alone. I am, after all, a 1 person company as are many independent 
trainers. I will not purchase other companies' books such as the Linux+ for my 
own classes because they do not cover what I think is really needed to do the 
job of system administration on a day to day basis. I do teach those classes for 
other folks, but never for myself or my own customers.

And while I do this I also have to market myself and my classes. And find the 
money to keep my business running, including the web site email server, and high 
speed internet connection. And I need to take the time to keep up with the 
latest developments such as the fact that systemd is replacing init as PID 1 and 
what that all means, and then working that into the course in a meaningful context.

Second, I have to pay for classroom space. It costs about $3000 - $8000 per week 
to rent a fully equipped classroom. So I rent space from a friend who has some 
available. Then I had to make the space suitable for a classroom. Purchase a 
whiteboard, computers, a projector, laptop large enough to use VMs for 
demonstrations, network switch and cables. And I always purchase the little 
things that make every class more civilized such as bottled water and snacks.

I purchased a laser printer that does double-sided printing because it was less 
expensive than having it copied and bound at any of the decent printing and copy 
shops, so I also purchase binders and separator tabs. Little things that make 
the final book easier to use. I duplicate DVDs and labels and apply the labels 
and insert them in sleeves. And the time to do all this comes out of my store.

At the moment I have two seats in my classroom. I hope to generate enough 
interest and business to add two more before next spring. I don't think I will 
ever plan to teach more than 6 students at a time because I like to maintain the 
ability to personalize my training. Each class has people with unique needs and 
the individuals come to class with specific problems to solve and questions 
related to those problems. It is my intent to answer each and every one, usually 
so long as it falls withing the scope of the class and many times even when it 
does not simply because that is where the students want and need to go.

And lastly, Magnus, I offer YOU the challenge and opportunity to take my class 
in September (Probably the last one I will run this year) and pay me what you 
think it is worth at the end. And then report back to this group what you really 
think when it is over.

I would be happy to provide you with references from previous students if you 
would like.

Thanks!


On 08/30/2011 06:26 PM, Magnus wrote:
> On Aug 30, 2011, at 2:56 PM, David Both wrote:
>> $1995.00
> Clearly I'm in the wrong line of work.
>
>
> -- 
>
>
> *********************************************************
> David P. Both, RHCE
> Millennium Technology Consulting LLC
> 919-389-8678
>
> dboth at millennium-technology.com
>
> www.millennium-technology.com
> www.databook.bz - Home of the DataBook for Linux
> DataBook is a Registered Trademark of David Both
>