How to spend Learning (L&D) Budget of USD 1000?

I have a similar situation. I am using the budget to:

- get Duolingo subscription

- get Audible subscription

- Buy books. I keep a list of books I should own or read someday, and I buy from it once in a while. When I need to learn a new topic fast, I buy 2-3 books on that topic

- Coursera has a business subscription that gives you "unlimited" certifications. But I plan to get it only if at the end of the year I have enough certifications to claim

- I have seen some smart things claimed under L&D, like subscriptions to tools you want to learn or use to support learning (Figma, Notion)

I hope these ideas help you!

If you are interested in video courses, particularly for programming languages, the link below is to a small, but useful, YouTube channel from a developer who reviews popular tutorial sites like Plurasight, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Udacity etc.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TechCourseReview/videos

This is probably stating the obvious, but sometimes (often?) online course instructors may have expertise in their subject but aren't particularly good at instruction or at explaining things clearly. Some sites give no course preview other than an introduction video (which may be scripted while the rest of the course is unscripted). I'd be wary of platforms like this (e.g. Pluralsight) that give no option to see the instructor's delivery or how they explain things.

I'm sure everyone has encountered video tutorials like the one shown in this parody video:

Every programming tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlSjtxy5ak

I’d suggest books and maybe journals. I’m perhaps a membership with ACM or IEEE, I’m not a member of either but I’m considering it.

The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow (2017): https://web.archive.org/web/20170406220055/http://dev-books....

The most mentioned books on HN: https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-ha

And here’s a list of my most resent book purchase. I have high hopes for these books.

The Pragmatic Programmer

Test Driven Development

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/software-design-flexibility

The Effective Engineer

Type-Driven Development with Idris

Programming Pearls

The Goal

The Phoenix Project

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps

Coders at Work

Code (Charles Petzold)

The Mythical Man Month

Structure and interpretation of computer programs

I had this one year and got the Safari Online subscription. It was nice because of the breadth of topics in their catalog

Im in a similar boat, most things are free to learn online unless you want to buy textbooks, so the only thing left is certificates and learning courses with teachers. Not sure i want to commit my free time studying for those things.

I told my company i was going to get a certificate but never did and free time programing has been spent freelancing/learning random stuff.

I had a similar "problem" at my last employer. Two of us booked a trip (from Germany) to San Francisco to attend a conference (and ride rented motorcycles around). I worked from there for a few extra days before heading back home.

If your employer isn't so cavalier with its spending, start with what interests you, and what fits in the budget. I'd use the opportunity to do something fun, rather than solely useful.

I’ve been taking some courses on Udacity, specifically their ML/DL and robotics course. As a full stack dev and beginner in these fields I like the structure. Their courses are over $1,500 but you can find coupons that give 50 - 75% discount by doing a quick google search.

I really like educative.io. I pay for it every year. Lots of great content and it is well curated.

I bought a metric shiteload of books. Basically just climbed down the Amazon suggestions rabbit hole and got a heap of technical books that matched what I wanted to learn.

Cloud (aws,azure) or k8s certs maybe? The knowledge can help your company and certs can make you more desirable if you decide to move on one day

In addition to the other answers - Pluralsight

IMO the best ways to learn are free. I guess a YouTube premium subscription would cut down on time wasted watching ads. I

I found O’Reilly subscription to be useful. Around $400/year.

Followed by books and some dedicated courses.

What do you want to learn? How do you want to develop?

Audible or conferences

Buy books.

makebook.io

hmm, buy an iphone!