OK that’s not true. Actually it’s a complete lie, but I did attend a .Net developers user group meeting and received 90 minutes of free training, and while it wont’ help me it would have certainly be beneficial to many developers whose future career opportunities are defined by continued growth and knowledge in their field.

Unfortunately out of the hundreds of people that could have benefited a mere 35 people showed up. This is completely illogical as there is no membership fee, no fee for the training (gratis thanks to Microsoft) and no charge for the food (sponsored by my company ).

Additionally, in my blog on Tuesday (Tools vs Talent) I referenced that companies hiring practices are increasingly tool-centric and along with the fact that since 2002 most companies have thrown out the training team and budget this leaves employees on their own to grow their skills. Needless to say what better way than through a local user group where in addition to either free or significantly reduced training costs you get a better understanding of what local companies exist in your market, what they are doing with the technology and maybe, just maybe, you get to meet your friendly neighborhood recruiter (that’s me) who can be a resources for your career as well.

To me it’s a win-win-win situation and I’m shocked as to why more people don’t take advantage.

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