advice from my father
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
My father sent some advice on the constant issue of re-training. Speaking on his experience in the 80's and 90's, he related to my career training (and further deliberations about perhaps a distance MBA) as follows:
Hi Mike,
This upgrading and gaining new skills is so important true during your whole working life. Here is what I had to learn about when I was about your age; albeit I was working for one company:
- Learning about electrical work in hazardous areas.
- Learning about chemical processes and production procedures in oil/gas plants by attending courses in Canada and the US.
- Getting my master electrician's certificate through night school classes.
- Doing installation design work that was acceptable to major clients like Bechtel Corp, Fluor Engineering, Nova, etc.
- Construction supervision for advanced instrumentation installations.
After I started running the flame arrester design and testing branch an other, totally different skill set was required.
- Knowledge of electronic testing and data gathering equipment and interpretation of results
- report writing for acceptance by CSA and US Coast Guard.
- Familiarity with explosive gas compositions and preparing these and pumping them into our test equipment.
- Setting up and operating the test equipment in correct fashion to ensure that the test results were acceptable to third parties.
- Preparing and presenting seminars relating to test procedures to industry and international scientists in Europe and Canada.
Later on I was involved in sales and took evening classes to be able to handle sales to international clients. Etc.,etc. At this time I was nearly 60 years old and a very, very long way from my initial training in my 20s as an industrial/marine electrician.
I hope you find encouragement in this litany in that what you are doing to get your CIA designation is very worthwhile and can only lead to improvements for you and your family down the road.
The CIA designation I'm looking at is an odd one, widely recognized in a narrow field and very challenging. I've even found a school that will grant me two years credit towards an MSc once the CIA is done. The people running the course tell me:
"Yes you can complete by distance learning. With the CIA qualification you would be entered at the MSc final stage which is a one year course comprising a consultancy assignment and 15,000 word dissertation. The consultancy assignment is in two parts; part a is a powerpoint presentation and part b is an analysis of a company in your role as a 'consultant'. The assignment is no more than 3,000 words. The dissertation is generally in an audit area and usually if you are sponsored by your organisation it may be an area that they want researching. You decide on a title and we approve it here. The dissertation is 15,000 words. The cost for the final year is £3,500."
On the MBA side, I note that there are now an estimated 100,000 distance learning MBA's on the go across the world. I have to assume that that is good for the general level of management capability, but wonder what it means for the (competitive) value of the degree when there are at least 150,000 MBA's in the US alone...