The older I get the less Iām inclined to spend my free/personal time and money on this profession.
But, I have done it a lot in the past. I want some motivation to keep at itā¦
I want to know from others, young and old:
Whatās your personal time budgeted for the year for professional development?(in terms of hours you spend outside of work)
Whatās your budget in terms of money for the year?(in terms of amount or percentage of income) - books, subscriptions, training, internships, volunteering, conferences, classes, ā¦
Do you expect to get a return for those investments? Have you already?(salary/position/opportunities?)
Iāve become a better tester. Iāve not obtained any extrinsic motivation/benefit - which I could have gotten to anyway. It might have stopped my growth actually due to being āstubbornā in different scenarios.
There are so many more things to learn
There is literally no stopping point so that is my motivation.
I work 8 hours for my client, after that I basically work another 8 hours for other companies (volunteering) or I tend to study a new thing/do some bug bounty etc. (~2hours for eating during the day and doing chores etc)
I go to bed at 12 and wake up at 5:45. Weekends I tend to sleep longer.
During the weekend I play video games but I also study/bug bounty a lot I donāt wanna put up a number since it depends on my mood I guess? But I study/bug bounty around 4-6 hours a day? If the misses is on holiday it might turn into a 16hour+ session XD
So on a good week I can spend 50+hours on studies/volunteer work/bug bounty
So most of the courses my company pays for me, but I tend to spend some money on it myself letās just say my max, letās say 1000/year myself?
This includes courses, books, ā¦ subscriptionsā¦
I guessā¦ Knowledge is Power. Iām basically very curious so Iām not doing it to get a better pay but I just like doing it, itās basically become my hobby
Itās a bit of an obsession, if somebody talks about X or Y and I totally know nothing about it and itās interesting guarantee Iāll spend 30 hours the next weekend on the topic, not trying to learn to basics but go really in-depth.
So yea my motivation comes from curiosity but also competitivity so I can start a course together with some of my friends and ā¦I basically want to finish it first so if they talk about something, I donāt wanna miss anything but most of the times I get so much ahead or Iām already finished and they just quit
My dedication probably sounds crazy or insane or not normal. But yea thatās just me Like every Sunday, I join at least 1-2 meetups. (yes on a Sunday) And during the week I also join some meetups/evening sessions. I even set myself a goal to do 100 meetups in 2024 (relevant to my job of course)
Iām 39 and 16 years a tester.
I have no specific time budget and a more low one for money.
I sail the Sea of Knowledge and look into what interests me.
I like learning in general and getting better in testing. Therefore itās partly a hobby of mine.
I donāt force me to something but do what I enjoy.
In terms of money I buy a few books a year, but did not spent my own on courses so far.
Personal Time Budget: 1 Hour per Day
Personal Money Budget: Usually, itās sponsored or free resources so I donāt have to put my own money.
ROI: Improvement in work, thinking, ideas, skills, etc.
Iām not sure how representative my answer is going to be, as ācomputersā in some generic sense is one of my main hobbies, and has been since I was in my early teens. I remember connecting original Xbox to PC, using FTP client to transfer data between the two and modifying XML files to translate user interface in unofficial launcher. I read a lot of blogs and play with new software, so a line between professional development and fun is blurred.
As above - itās hard to say, because some things I do for fun turn out to be useful at work. I might consciously decide to spend time on them, but I might just encounter them randomly and decide itās fun thing to do.
Iām in the process of setting up deliberate practice habit, with a target of at least 1 hour a day. Since I donāt have kids, itās relatively easy for me to find time when I feel I need it to focus on bigger things. Historically, there were times where that could be as much as ~40 hours a week.
I donāt have specific budget.
For books, I try to buy cheap or at discount. I have some threshold below which I donāt have to think too much about budgeting (somewhere around a price of 2-3 beers at pub), and practice impulsive purchases in that range. Above the threshold I let it sit for couple of days or weeks before making a decision - usually I do not buy.
One thing that was above threshold that I did buy and which returned itself multiple times is āLessons Learned in Software Testingā.
As for courses, I rarely buy them.
I bought ISTQB exam early in my career. Some part was covered by my employer, I donāt remember details any longer. Mostly useless, but if it supposed to get me through automatic keywords filtering system, then I guess it was worth it.
I took test automation in Python course when I had 3 or 4 years of experience. There were face to face classes that I had to travel to, and some online meetings. It was very expensive for me at the time - like 75% of my monthly take-home pay, and my salary back then did not leave too much space for savings. My employer eventually paid for some of that. One thing I did learn at the course was that I already know everything they try to teach me, which had very positive impact on my self-esteem and pushed me to apply for better and higher-paying jobs. So I guess it did return itself, but in very indirect way.
I bought āWeekly Python Exercisesā few years ago, out of my own pocket. It was expensive enough to not fall into impulse purchase, but not expensive enough to save for extended period of time. There werenāt many things I have learned there. Career-wise, Iām afraid it did not return itself, but it was fun to do and I learned what kinds of online workshops/training I like, and what I do not.
I bought a course about software architecture, again out of my own pocket. Itās around 15% of my monthly take-home pay. I donāt yet know if it will turn out to be useful career-wise or not - I do it in part in hope to broaden my professional network.
There is also university stuff I did after I started full-time employment, all paid out of my own pocket:
I got computer science degree at bachelor level. A total was 2 or 3 of my take-home monthly pays at the time, paid in 7 installments spread over the course of entire degree. I already knew or didnāt care about most of the things covered in classes. I did it mostly as a safeguard, in case job market changes dramatically and lack of CS degree could severely limit my job prospects. Did not happen yet, so was mostly useless so far.
I took yearly postgraduate course (not to be confused with PhD) in statistics right after university, because I was considering a career in data science at the time. I decided to stay in testing. However, we did cover basics of a lot of techniques that are powering AI systems, so it might prove useful after all.
I answered above by each item. My results are mixed. One course that helped the most did so through positive impact on self-esteem and not the knowledge itself.
Knowledge is Power. Iām basically very curious so Iām not doing it to get a better pay but I just like doing it, itās basically become my hobby 
