LinkedIn Learning self-reflection: 130 courses in 15 months

April 6, 2022
About Me

Every week, almost every day, whenever I have time. This is a massive commitment in my life to do better. I am primarily focused on human and leadership skills, LinkedIn Learning helped me a lot in preparation for my expert certifications, both Microsoft and AWS. Last, I found great courses supporting my hobbies such as filmmaking and CNC machinery.

Below are some of my favorite courses. I put a short comment on each course to give you an answer on WHY I think that was worthy of my time.

I think a course is considered brilliant mind-blowing (not just fine or good) if you remember the unique speaker and his/her key takeaways years later, just like on the day when you enjoyed the training. I built this list based on my memories.

My absolute favorite course of all time. Daniel is a genius. He is super engaging. I was soo inspired that I ordered his book The Power of Regret | Daniel H. Pink (danpink.com) and I think it was a good investment. Can’t wait to see more content from him.

One of the most popular courses ever (created by LinkedIn itself) visited by millions of people. It is amazing and worth your time. As soon as your children understand, share it, and help them to understand WHY these people are more successful than others. “Surround yourself with senior people so you can learn from them.” Sounds easy, but are you really doing this? Do you have senior people within your family, at work, among your friends? Define senior. It is not just the age.

John Ullmen is a legend. I found this training on Microsoft’s internal website on “Core Skills”. Even if you think you know “everything” and you do not need such training, put your ego to the side, and check out this course whatever age or role you are currently in.

I have seen successful people at large organizations (without formal authority). They all have a topic and a brand that makes them unique. This is how they stand up from the crowd. Ideally, your personal brand is based on your history, connections, and experience. No shortcuts. Authenticity takes time and unlimited energy. A great and very-popular topic from Chelsea.

Must do for everyone. Look for global organizations. Make connections outside your comfort zone. Make friends from all around the globe. It is an amazing experience! Most important: be warm, nice, and kind to everyone. A white man from Europe can act ego-driven, do not be the @ssh0le in the room.

I feel sorry for bystanders doing nothing in muted groups. Allowing bad people to continue their passive-aggressive behavior. This drives people in the direction of burnout. That’s not what you want. Speak up or change the environment. Life is short. You deserve better.

“Tell me a little bit about yourself.” Are you ready for this question? So I will remember you and grandpa on the tractor. Tatiana is an amazing instructor, this course made me think if I can properly tell my story. How good is your story?

A classical training from Chris, who creates really good courses on LinkedIn Learning. I loved the concept of the “Freedom ladder”. I am not the “Wait until told” kind of person so having a people manager with such expectations drives me mad. This helps you to understand when is good for you.

I have worked for stunning leaders and got fantastic mentors but experimented with quite bad people managers as well on my way. I always wanted to better understand what makes a leader unique so no one feels bad in the entire team.

Essential skill. I used to talk a lot. Still enjoy sharing my recent learnings. As I am learning a lot, I need to simplify and share the wisdom I recently gained. I am proudly sharing. Even if people not asking for it. I need to enforce myself to listen more. I noticed if I let others speak I learn more. I noticed smart people speak at the end of the conversation after everyone shared their perspectives.

Some people miss people-management experience till their 30s and 40s. I think if someone becomes a people manager in the 50s it is already a bit late. It is always a good idea to learn how to act as a leader. Even if you have no direct reports.

Having a tool at work gives you a platform to request and provide feedback is a great opportunity to discover your blind spots and help others to discover theirs. You should invest your time to do this better and understand the general rules of how to provide professional feedback that helps others to do better.

Lou is amazing. The job needs to be described as a series of performance objectives that the best people see as a possible career move. Life is short for lateral transfers.

If you are preparing for an interview take this training first and understand how the interviewer thinks. Do not waste your time on “how to interview well” but understand how the interviewer is supposed to run the show. I had the opportunity to interview both technical and non-technical people. This is the highest level of trust given by the organization, you should do this right. Be curious, be bold, and do this right.

It is not just the project management methodology. I really enjoyed building 2 pizza-sized teams to achieve a bold vision to build something together never existed before – so we can proudly tell the story years later that we have been there and did it, together.

This is a big topic. I remember myself presenting with my sales peer for 45 minutes at a very large company facing their CXO people (selling an HW & SW combination). I was focused on WHAT I am presenting and not HOW and WHY. I think it is good to have a general understanding of how to talk to executives and do not expect that your direct peers will teach you this. If you are lucky your mentor/manager will help you with feedback to improve your performance.

Samantha is amazing. I remember myself sending wall-of-text emails to executives. Obviously bad. Writing a long email takes time both to compose and read. Save time for yourself. Save time for senior people.

If you get a mentor you want to become a mentor and pay it back. Give yourself time to master it before helping others.

Mentor choose you. If you are lucky and worth it, you will be selected. Use the opportunity to learn. Be patient. Introduce people. Connect people.

Yes, you can learn this. Think before shouting. The same pattern applies at work and at home with your family. There is only one from you. Be nice everywhere.

Everything runs on trust. Let’s see what behavior builds and what destroys trust. If trust is broken, how to fix it. Your gut is probably right.

It is not a dangerous topic if you do this right. Find the way to help your manager to become more successful while finding your own way to the next level.

Don’t. Have your sponsors if your feedback is not welcome. Have a safety plan in case of backfire: i.e. change roles within the Company. Worst case, changing The Company is a great solution before The Company (“Senior Colleagues”) will make you redundant.

Another interesting course helps to understand why people prefer some managers more than others.

Here is my Learning History (as of April 5th, 2022)

Attila_Macskasy_LinkedIn_Learning_April_2022 Download

Attila Macskasy

My calling is moving prem VMware workloads to Cloud.

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Oracle Database service for Azure – connecting Azure VM and Power App

2022.11.02.

I have connected a Database Admin Azure VM running Oracle’s SQL Developer (Windows version) and a Microsoft Power Platform application displaying Oracle’s HR demo schema (via on-premises data gateway on Azure VM connecting with Power Platform’s Oracle Premium Connector) to the same Oracle Database hosted on OCI.

Oracle Database service for Azure – linking subscriptions

2022.11.01.

As part of my multi-cloud research, I wanted to test Oracle Database Service for Azure. In this article, you will see how to sign up for the new service and how to link Oracle and Azure accounts. I used Frankfurt datacenters, Azure MSDN, and OCI paid account (Free Tier does not work) using my private Azure Active Directory.

Why multi-cloud is the way to go? VMware and Oracle perspective.

2022.10.20.

While cloud migration is still a popular topic during customer discussions, I have noticed that more and more customers are considering an exit plan from one cloud (vendor lock-in) to another cloud meaning there is an increase in multi-cloud migration demand. VMware, Oracle, and SAP are the major workloads in on-premises data centers today. Based on my research both VMware and Oracle are very vocal about the importance of having a multi-cloud strategy.

AWS Site-to-Site VPN using MikroTik RouterOS

2022.04.07.

There are two ways of approaching this challenge. (#1) running MikroTik virtual appliance (CHR) in AWS (#2) using Virtual Private Gateway, a “cloud-native” networking solution provided by AWS. Each solution has its own benefits.