I’m stuck in the corporate world at the moment, so I’m posting here in the hopes that you likeminded folks can help me get the most out of this portion of my compensation.
The company offers $2k a year as an “education stipend,” meaning that if I don’t spend the money on something that counts as “educational” by the end of the year, it’s just $$$ down the drain.
This is the perfect opportunity for one of those “sign up for X class and get a free iPad!” “purchase a career coaching package and get discounts on X through our web store!” “attend this conference and get an Amazon gift card!” types of deals.
Any suggestions? I need to be able to make the case that this is related to professional development in some way, but that can be fairly loose — e.g. in the past I’ve used it to purchase coffee table books about design, because my work is loosely related to UX design.
Anything that can be argued as related to management skills, UX (design, research, ops), or even AI can generally get approved. And they really only look at the topline proposal — e.g. a career coaching package that comes with some side benefits or offers would be a-okay.