Sorry if this isn’t necessarily the right place for this question, but I’ve been coming here for years for technical help, and now I need some broader assistance. Any and all is appreciated.
I’ve been developing Notes applications for 10+ years. Other than a little assistance from a developer years ago, I’m completely self-taught. That means I started out by tearing apart apps to figure out how they worked and eventually getting to the point where I develop my own apps for large user groups corporate wide. I can pretty much make an app do whatever I want on the Notes client (this is the only way our users interact with Notes), and there’s been a few times where I’ve even taught some certified developers a trick or two. Finally, I should also note that I have no technical training whatsoever…my background is in a completely unrelated field…but I’m now a primary Notes resource in my relatively large organization.
So here’s the problem: Since I have no formal training I’m far from being the highly proficient developer I’d like to be. I don’t know all the technical terms. I probably end up doing things by trial-and-error that some training could eliminate. I feel like some additional training could make me a stronger asset to my organization because my knowledge of Notes/Domino capabilities is somewhat limited.
It’s budget time. I’ve approached my manager requesting that the company invest into training for me. But what would be the best course of action? Some of the classes I’ve found seem appropriate, but have pre-reqs that seem way too basic based on my experience. I’m particularly interested in learning Java, but have no idea where to start. I might be interested in going down the certification path, but I’m not sure the company will budget for that or that I can personally finance that at this time.
Any suggestions? Any places people might recommend I look or that might be a good start?
Your feedback is appreciated! Thanks ahead of time!