Just wanted to clarify, UC Berkeley Extension and UC Berkeley Executive Education are different. The one week course at UC Berkeley Executive Education has been around since 2006 so it is different than the one you refer to. I won’t comment since I helped organize it, but I’d love to have it included in the survey: http://www.galimagroup.com/product-management.

Also, on the economy / training, we have 35 people signed up for an April 27-May 1, 2009 one week Product Management program. This time last year it would have been sold out with 70 participants. Just some data if anyone is curious.

In my area of the country, there’s quite a few large privately held companies that seem to be retaining talent, and some are even hiring. At the same time, big publicly traded companies keep announcing 10% work force reductions as a pro forma gesture to the Street.

How many of these companies actually understand where that magic 10% number comes from? Or how stupid they look when they do multiple rounds of layoffs? I’m not an MBA, but I know that if you have to do multiple rounds of layoffs in the same quarter, you’re totally screwing up.

OK, back to the original topic of this thread. Every company I’ve worked at has a training/education budget. If it hasn’t already been axed from your company’s 2009 budget, submit a training request asap – it’s typically first come, first served. Even if your company has a fixed-cap reimbursement per employee policy, that doesn’t guarantee the money will be there if you wait until Q4. So, again, check if there’s a training budget and submit a request asap.

Of course, this assumes you have a legit need to attend training, that you’ll stay at the cheapest non-crack-den motel you can find, and you’ll show your punched Subway card to show you ate cheap as hell too. While legit training expenses will raise nary an eyebrow, submitting an expense report with $$$$ for travel, meals and lodging could be a career-limiting move ;)

I also agree with John that people should consider paying for their own training. It’s tax deductible and all but the most callous companies would let you attend training on your own $$ and do it on their time (eg without having to burn through your vacation days). Unfortunately, many of the training programs I’ve seen are priced with corporate pocketbooks in mind – they’re held at the best Hyatt in town with $250/night rooms instead of at the local Holiday Inn Express.

Point noted. I guess what I’m saying is that there are always alternatives. If training is that important to you, why not pay for it yourself? Maybe strike a deal with your company to smooth the expense out over a 12 month period? Or come up with an arrangement where they repay you when things improve? Worst case, maybe there is a way to write it off in your taxes. We all need to start thinking a little differently instead of immediately throwing in the towel.

But. Show me a publicly traded technology company that doesn’t behave that way and I’ll apply. We live in a world where shareholders live by quarter-to-quarter P&Ls and if revenue is down, costs get cut. Yep, you could argue that it’s unwise to cut training but reality bites.