Letter from the President - April 2016
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW
New versions of your favorite applications are soon to be released. Finding information about the new or improved features is usually not difficult. Autodesk publishes information on its website, Lynn Allen produces a booklet and speaks at local events, the media writes about it and your AUGI is a part of that. But the learning does not stop there. There is so much more to know.
Likely, there are features in your favorite applications that you rarely use. You may even be using some features every day that have nuances you have not considered. This is the great dilemma of “how do you know what you don’t know?”
One great way to find out what you don’t know is to go to great conferences such as Autodesk University and RTC. There are always moments at those conferences where I hear someone describe something that just amazes me. But I can’t make it to every class that I want to attend. What didn’t I hear that could have blown me away?
The learning doesn’t have to stop after the conference is over. Autodesk offers AU Online. Have you taken advantage of all the great information that is located there? Did you know that AUGI itself hosts content from past AU and RTC events? This is a great place to find information about a feature that you have never had the chance to learn about.
But there is another aspect of “how do you know what you don’t know” that is important. What do you do about new people who join your company? Training. It’s almost like a four letter word. Let’s face it: new employees are bombarded with a lot of information when they start a new job. It’s a difficult time because they need to learn how the new company works and how to do their job. But what about learning how the new company uses the applications?
The offices that I work with primarily use MEP-related applications, especially AutoCAD® MEP and Revit® MEP. The experience level of new employees obviously varies greatly. Finding experienced Revit MEP designers and modelers is especially difficult. I find that it usually takes three to five full days, yes days, to train someone in how we use Revit MEP. This length of training obviously conflicts with the hiring manager’s desire to get a new employee productive as soon as possible. It is also a difficult thing to schedule for myself, given all my other duties.
There are potential solutions to the issue such as self-paced online training, reseller-based training, ATC, colleges and universities, etc. However, none of these approaches teaches new employees how your company uses the applications. You could drop a CAD or BIM manual on their desk and hope that they actually read it (visualize my rolling eyes here.) Face-to-face training gives me the opportunity to really gauge the strengths and weaknesses of new employees. It also gives them the confdence that I can be approached with questions and issues. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the subject of training. Let’s start a conversation in AUGI’s forums!
