As additional activities, apart from working for system integrator, I regularly deliver trainings from about 3 years. Usually I deliver around 10 trainings days per quarter. Are there any benefits of being a trainer? I wasn’t aware before, now I know there are plenty and I incorporate that benefits into my regular job.
Soft skills
Part of my job is presales, so I have to talk to Customers, do presentations, webinars – typical sales activities. Public speaking happen sometimes as well. Apart from technical things, soft skills are important as well. Thanks to trainings I can train myself as well. My soft skills improved significantly.
Technical expertise
Of course, to deliver Palo Alto Networks authorized courses I have know their products deeply, but on the other hand there is no option to know everything. Almost every time some student ask about something what I don’t know or I’m not sure and going deeply is necessary. So again, I train myself.
Question handling
Even when you are an expert in some field, people do not expect that you know everything. There is nothing bad of saying “I don’t know, I have to check”. Even it’s much better than trying to trick people that you know what saying about. Before, during technical conversation with Customers I feared that I can receive question I have no idea about that specific topic, today, not at all.
To be eligible to deliver courses I had to attend one week workshop delivered by Palo Alto Networks and be accepted by them – what surprised me, they emphasized more soft skills than technical knowledge.
Generally, thanks to trainings I’m better engineer, from technical perspective and soft skills as well.