To be fair, that's true of almost everything.
I still have my university email (graduated in 2020) so I've been renewing my student license that gets me a free license for the occasional times I use them.
I kinda wish they'd just go for the Winrar or Docker business model, where it's free for individuals but businesses have to pay up.
I also jumped into a personal O'Reilly Safari subscription way back when the price wasn't as high as it is now, and I've kept that grandfathered subscription up as well.
I think between the two, it ends up being a bit less than $500 a year. That's not very much at all against a tech salary, and the O'Reilly sub actually has been quietly useful for work projects now and again too.
My basic take is 1) A builder should have their own set of tools whether they hew wood or numbers (and not everything fits neatly into Visual Studio Code, though I probably use that as much or more than Jetbrains); and 2) if I ever do manage to squeeze out a profitable side project in CA, I want my argument that I'm not using my employer's resources in any way shape or form to be very very solid.
In CA, who owns the resources is the difference in who owns that product. For the same reason, I always buy my own cell phone and pay my own cell phone plan, even if a corporate phone is otherwise forced on me, and always own my own laptop as well for any personal development that comes up.
It's a touch on the paranoid side, I guess, but I just feel better knowing I can be as independent as I want to be with my tech stack. With my own tech library to lean on, a nearly universal set of build tools licensed specifically to me, and my own devices for communication and development, I feel very comfortable that there's no implied shared resource argument that can be made.
Good to hear they've done a better job with their screen reader accessibility as well. I learned to use VoiceOver a month ago (I do a lot of front-end dev work) and ever since then I've had a lot of appreciation for any app/site that manages to pull do it well
I feel that's not my problem as an employee. I work the same amount of time regardless.
Example: without Intellij, you deploy some back end code interacting with an OCR solution.
Example: with Intellij, you can build the whole OCR solution yourself.
Doing the latter translates long term into higher salaries and more money in your pocket. You have to talk about what you did in interviews and your answers will be reflected in the offers you get.
The only way this would not apply would be if you can say “I am absolutely sure I will never move on from, or be laid off by, my company,” which is not a recommended strategy in this economy.
>Example: without Intellij, you deploy some back end code interacting with an OCR solution.
> Example: with Intellij, you can build the whole OCR solution yourself.
How did IntelliJ taught you how to make OCR ? Or the example is completely out of your wild imagination ?
Do you have any source for this very surprising claim?
Can you list any alternate ways that one upskills?
I'm sure your boss will be overjoyed when the company will get hit by a lawsuit :)
