Downsized. AGAIN?!

Urrrrrrrgh!

Over the past 21 years, I’ve had the privilege to work for two respected Fortune 500 companies and one India 500 company. Though my job titles (Technician, Business Analyst, Manager) didn't reflect it, training was a big part of my responsibilities. Early on that meant mapping and writing technical processes. I wrote or edited hundreds of knowledge articles. I provided both one-on-one and group training sessions. Along the way, there were infographics and PowerPoints. Later I was given the opportunity to develop training videos that involved project management, scheduling, analysis, working with SMEs, writing scripts and text-based storyboards, creating screencasts, editing audio, and video, providing voiceovers, gaining end-user feedback, and producing deliverables ready for loading into an LMS. Follow-on evaluation took the form of quizzes and surveys. I didn’t know it at the time, but along the way, I was learning and applying the skills of instructional design. Specifically, ADDIE - Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. Unfortunately, each of these three companies went through multiple downsizings which impacted me personally.

Can you relate?

And then came the pandemic. Wow! Can you say game-changer? Every aspect of our lives has been impacted.

Being out of work at that time, I decided to upskill and learned about an instructional design certificate course being taught at the University of Minnesota. I enrolled and really enjoyed earning that certificate.

I know I'll always have more to learn about instructional design and am excited about that journey, but I also know that I have experience and knowledge to share along the way.