Training, because you're worth it

By Nick Crawley on August 13 2010

Don’t stick your head in the sand!

Managing the busy training arm of Navigator, I regularly receive emails from prospective training participants who declare, quite genuinely, “I really want to come on a course but……”

Knowing only too well the daily demands of a busy Project Finance team I can empathise with them but having the experience to see the bigger picture, regardless of the provider of the course, I can say these people are doing themselves and their employers a disservice – controversial? Read my thoughts.

Have you ever truthfully stopped and wondered why you are so busy?!

Maybe some of your peers are not in the office at midnight but still doing well? Have you picked up on seemingly simple differences like they use Excel shortcuts or they don’t use the mouse – they probably don’t spend hours running scenarios or stuck in circular references or visual basic with no success. Sound familiar?

A healthy approach to remedy this situation is to take responsibility for your own personal analytical brand – which ideally for yourself and your employer means that you are actively striving to be the best. Training is an integral part of this process.

Take responsibility for your own personal analytical brand.

Part of being a professional within any industry is to keep current with the leading practices. In the world of Project Finance and especially transaction modelling, this means continued learning to improve efficiency and reduce error rates. Just sticking to an out of date in-house template or slowly working out your methodology doesn’t cut it if you want to be the best.

The difference between an average and a great modeller can be as little as a couple of days of focused training.

“I am just too busy to attend training”

Now of course, there are lots of different areas you can invest in training. If you are in the Project Finance industry then a course such as International Project Finance or any of our modelling courses would be time well spent. Let me put this in perspective; when a new team member joins Navigator there is a three month intensive training programme to quite literally survive – at the other end they are ready to only start commercial modelling. We have condensed this into several courses that take just two days each…..probably worth checking out? I would say so.

Navigator courses generally end by 16:30 leaving plenty of time to catch up on the day’s work. Sure they will be long days but it will pay off immediately. If you are that busy, and remember the audience you will be amongst, leave your blackberry on, bring your wireless modem and stay online….

“I don’t have the budget”

If your employer doesn’t have the budget to invest in a quantum step up in your modelling skills and techniques that will save you endless late nights – well consider finding another employer!

Alternatively, if you are undertaking a course out of your own wallet, then we offer individuals a 50% discount….yes you read correctly…50%! If you are thinking of going on another course ask them for the same!

“It’s not on in my city”

Say you are in Spain, Germany or New Zealand but want to come on training, have a think about asking for sufficient discount to help cover a big chunk of the flight cost! Sure there are other costs you will incur but if you spread this over two, two-day courses back to back, then your value will be increased.

Some of the smarter arrangements I have heard of are students using the trip to visit their employer’s local office (once again building your own brand) or to visit friends or even start a holiday!

We go to a lot of trouble to schedule our programme in the major financial centres so that it’s only a short flight to attend if you are not based there.

“I am already an expert, I do not need training”

I lose track of the number of participants who have said they were too advanced to come on PFM(A)….only to be at the back of the pack come the first break.

You may have been modelling for years but it doesn’t mean that you know it all or even enough. Remember good modelling is not about how much you know or how complex a problem you can solve – it’s a hundred times more important to focus on bringing simplicity, speed and accuracy to the table. To pick these concepts up you need to see how a commercial transaction modelling firm tackles the issue.

Aside from the technical knowledge you will pick up, of course there are other benefits, meeting new people with similar interests, benchmarking your ability and picking up tips (maybe not on the course flyer) from our hands on transaction modellers.

View our training schedule.