Hi everyone,

I would like to hear how others are learning and growing their skills within IBM.

There are many learning resources, training programs, and internal opportunities available, but sometimes it can be difficult to know where to focus first.

What has helped you the most in your career growth at IBM? Have you found any specific learning paths, certifications, mentoring programs, or projects that were especially valuable?

I would appreciate hearing about your experiences and recommendations.

Thank you!

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Emma Grace
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One thing that helped me the most was combining formal training with hands-on project work. IBM offers a lot of great learning resources, but applying new skills on real projects tends to make the knowledge stick much faster. I also found mentoring and networking with experienced colleagues incredibly valuable, as they often point you toward opportunities and learning paths you might not discover on your own.

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Henry Collins
Web Developer
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Hands-on projects are always the best way to learn, in my opinion. There are tons of subjects I would like to learn more about, but unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to be part of those. 

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Caroline Whitaker
Senior Capacity Management
Ensono
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Original Message:
Sent: 06/24/26 05:45 PM
From: Henry Collins
Subject: Best Ways to Learn New Skills Within IBM

One thing that helped me the most was combining formal training with hands-on project work. IBM offers a lot of great learning resources, but applying new skills on real projects tends to make the knowledge stick much faster. I also found mentoring and networking with experienced colleagues incredibly valuable, as they often point you toward opportunities and learning paths you might not discover on your own.

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Henry Collins
Web Developer
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I'm going to caveat what I've seen about "learning while doing a project is the best way to learn." There are a lot of factors that impact OTJ (on-the-job) training, which is what I would consider learning-by-doing to be. I am also going to mention that I'm looking at this from an engineering/implementation perspective.

Major factors as to whether or not it's a good idea to do for a project:

• How visible is the project? - High-visibility projects are usually not good for more complicated implementations. In these cases, shadowing may be more effective, with a mentor or principal who has full control giving the person shadowing the chance to try under high supervision. For simpler tasks, a more lenient stance might be taken, but there will likely still be supervision involved.
  
  
• How critical is the project to the customer and/or stakeholders? - If a project is of high importance, time-constrained, or done as part of emergency remediation, learning while doing is not ideal. Again, shadowing may be possible here, but it's unlikely to be more than that in these sorts of critical scenarios. 
  
  
• Is the implementation primarily customer-facing or via independent action? - If a project requires working with a customer during the implementation, those parts of the project may not be good for learning-on-the-job. Customers often have complex or unusual questions that require a breadth of knowledge across multiple domains. If the implementer is just learning a product or service, they may not have all the answers. Doing customer-facing activities with a co-implementer with more experience would mitigate this (they would run interference while keeping an eye on your implementation and enabling you to do the work instead of having to balance the other parts of the job that come with customer-involved implementations). If this is work that doesn't have a customer-facing implementation component, then lighter supervision is possible.
  
  
• How complex is the skill being explored? - More complex concepts and skills may be better practiced using virtual machines or platform offerings instead of in a project, especially if the implementation is complex, easy to break, or would cost a significant amount of a practitioner's time in the event of a failure. While many projects are flat-bid, engineering hours are still important to manage. Additionally, extending the project impacts PM time, requires renegotiating stakeholder expectations, and can have negative repercussions on the relationship between business and client.
  
  
• Will there be someone serving in a mentoring role/senior capacity? - Having a mentor or co-implementor who is "in charge" is essential for any OJT learning. If you have one of these assigned to a project where you're learning a skill, they should be able to help you learn where you can and navigate some of the complexities of balancing implementation speed, your learning, and managing customer expectations. 
  
  

Note that I'm not currently an IBMer, but was one once. When I was with IBM, I supported internal efforts that supported external projects. I now work for a business partner.

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Steven Garcia
Consultant
Pellera Technologies
VT
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Original Message:
Sent: 06/24/26 05:45 PM
From: Henry Collins
Subject: Best Ways to Learn New Skills Within IBM

One thing that helped me the most was combining formal training with hands-on project work. IBM offers a lot of great learning resources, but applying new skills on real projects tends to make the knowledge stick much faster. I also found mentoring and networking with experienced colleagues incredibly valuable, as they often point you toward opportunities and learning paths you might not discover on your own.

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Henry Collins
Web Developer
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The study group program on Quantum (Qiskit ) post in Slack channel helped me to learn Quantum basics, participating in different topics discussions, sharing knowledge, and exploring the open source projects being held in that area.  Improved the network across the org, BU's.

Regards,

Gowreeswari 

Spectrum LSF -QA 

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Gowreeswari B
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Hello Emma,

 the main thing that helped me grow in my career was setting goals. With all the opportunities and resources available to you, it will become easier to choose  the right path once you know what your aiming for. 

  Your best approach is to define and write down and review your goals on a regular basis,

        .   1    Define your Long-Term Goals   5 + years 

            2.   Second, define your Midterm Goal (typically)  1-5 years)

               3. What is your Short-Term Goal?  (3 -12 months)

  Writing your goals down and reviewing as well as adjusting on a regular basis is very helpful. 

  Network with people within IBM that are successful of areas within your goals.

Break down each goal into smaller, actionable steps and set milestones to track your progress. (Keep it simple). Regularly review and adjust your goals as you gain new insights and opportunities within IBM. Seek feedback and guidance from mentors or colleagues to stay aligned with your career path.

Other good books: by Erik Therwanger can be found at erik therwanger book - Search

                                     Brian Tracy  "Brian Tracy's Key Ideas on Goal Setting" book. StrategicGoalSettingForSuccessGuide.pdf

  

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Thomas Mertens
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Please take a look at the "IBM i Education" page and the "Are you new to IBM i" page on the IBM i Reference Pages Blog @ ibmireference.blogspot.com

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Michael Mayer
IBM i on Power System Admin
Jr INFOR Admin
ERMCO-ECI
Dyersburg, Tennessee 38024

2024 / 2025 IBM Badge Advocate, Contributor and Influencer.

2026 IBM Advocate and Contributor badges + IBM "Bob" badge.

Blog: https://ibmireference.blogspot.com
Credly: www.credly.com/users/michael-mayer.586da683/badges#credly
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Original Message:
Sent: 07/18/26 03:56 PM
From: Thomas (Tom) Mertens
Subject: Best Ways to Learn New Skills Within IBM

Hello Emma,

 the main thing that helped me grow in my career was setting goals. With all the opportunities and resources available to you, it will become easier to choose  the right path once you know what your aiming for. 

  Your best approach is to define and write down and review your goals on a regular basis,

        .   1    Define your Long-Term Goals   5 + years 

            2.   Second, define your Midterm Goal (typically)  1-5 years)

               3. What is your Short-Term Goal?  (3 -12 months)

  Writing your goals down and reviewing as well as adjusting on a regular basis is very helpful. 

  Network with people within IBM that are successful of areas within your goals.

Break down each goal into smaller, actionable steps and set milestones to track your progress. (Keep it simple). Regularly review and adjust your goals as you gain new insights and opportunities within IBM. Seek feedback and guidance from mentors or colleagues to stay aligned with your career path.

Other good books: by Erik Therwanger can be found at erik therwanger book - Search

                                     Brian Tracy  "Brian Tracy's Key Ideas on Goal Setting" book. StrategicGoalSettingForSuccessGuide.pdf

  

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Thomas Mertens
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