How did you get into technical training?

Question

Almost as long as I&rsquo;ve been working as a developer I&rsquo;ve liked giving workshops and sharing knowledge. Recently I&rsquo;ve been thinking of pivoting my career over to doing technical training (I run my own consultancy so I&rsquo;d like to run it in my own name). I&rsquo;ve been in talks with Pluralsight about making video courses but I think in-person training is more my jam.Has anyone done this? Any tips for getting started?

mooreds · Accepted Answer

I did this for a year or so. I worked with a company called Global Knowledge, and was introduced by an acquaintance. I had to get certified with AWS but was fed 1-3 courses a month for a few years. Pay was about 1300/day. There was some travel, and that was reimbursed, but there were also plenty of online courses. (I hear the pay and needs are different now.)
I would use one of these intermediaries to get started. They sell into different corporations and have an idea of what technologies and rates are like. They may or may not have courseware you can use as well.
Of course, you won't get as much money as if you do it directly, but it'll be easier to get started. Make sure you don't sign any exclusive agreement, though I expect they will always require you to sign something saying you won't approach their clients. But you should be able to have your own training clients on the side.
One in the Colorado area who I've heard good things about (and talked to, but never worked for) is Develop Intelligence http://developintelligence.com/ Happy to intro you to them (contact details in my profile). I'm also happy to intro you to my acquaintance, who is still doing technical training.

ipnon · Answer

My learning is deeper when I synthesize it. My synthesis is clearer when I anticipate sharing it. Therefore, I blog.

muzani · Answer

Me personally, I pitched a startup to a VC who got rich from technical training. I sold the startup, did nothing for a while. He needed someone to tour the country for government sponsored training to educational institutions, which most of the part time trainers couldn't do.
The pay is terrible IMO - an hour of training might require 1-3 hours of preparation. Untrained people usually earn less than you and can't afford much. So you end up working about 3 hours for the pay of one, plus travel costs and often late payments. It's just so much more profitable to write code. But I think a trainer should spend 20% of their time training max, and the rest should be doing the work they're teaching.
tl;dr: know people who run training companies