Learning a tool is like climbing a multistorey building on ladders, They don't always go straight. They go one level, stop and make a turn and then you move on to the next stairs which lead you to the next lavel.
This is what happens when you learn a software tool, like catia, ansys etc. You don't become a master in that software in one stretch of time. You learn in levels.
When i was learning excel, i saw this very clearly. I learnt all the formulas in excel and began applying them in my work and play. After few weeks practise and reading and experiments, i was comfortable with the formulas and this ability came as great help to me at that times work. After a time, my learning of new thing in excel stopped as i was able to do most of the things in it with what i already new. so on the learning excel front, i have reached one level and i wasn't climbing any higher.
This remained till i came to NAL, where i was supposed to debug and modify a existing vba level program, this let me see the next stair that i have to climb in excel and sooner i was enjoying the next stair. the learning and experiments were furious in this phase. I learnt a lot and tasks that took hours were accomplished in minutes, the productivity of excel increased drastically. I continued to learn and apply. But, as before, after certain time i reached the top of this stairs and gradually my learning new things again slowed down to zero. I was applying what i knew but was stagnant on learning anything new. The current stairs just took me to this level.
I had to find starirs to the new level now.
This happened a year latter when I was assigned to a new project where I have to work on a program that was entirely sitting on excel. this was the stairs of advance vba and this is when i learnt more deeply about vba in excel and its capabilities.
So the point is that there are steps or levels in learning a software. Each stair leaves us to one level higher, then we need to find the next steps and climb one more level. This is a continuous process. All institutes will lead you to one level or the next. After that its your own initiative to climb higher.
And the best way to find and get to the next level is to challenge yourself to move to the next level or to take on an extra responsibility that takes you to that next level.
