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My Goals As A Learning Designer

 On April 19th 2023, I jumped on a call with a Hiring Director for a Training Manager position I had interviewed for 2months prior hoping to hear the words we would like to offer you the job. Unfortunately, it was we have decided to go with someone else (the most dreaded words to hear) and proceed to let me know that the skill set I was missing was experience around Instructional Design. I had thought that all the work I had done until that point was enough. After the initial disappointment settled in, I asked myself what’s next. After a more in depth conversation with the hiring director his feedback made it clear that this was my next career path within my organization. 


So as I am embark on this journey I see my short term goal is to determine what my current knowledge and understanding of Learning Designer based off my current working experience and skills. Start to assess those skills against the framework of this course, listening to my professors and peers as they talk about their experiences and identify short coming in my own ability that I need to strengthen. I know that I have a toolbox that is full of tools that I have collected so far in my life but I need to start to evaluate which ones need to be sharpened and those that I need to acquire and even those that I need to toss out. I know one of my biggest supporters is going to be the hiring director who turned me down will now be a mentor. He has offered to meet with me after each course to do a debrief with and talking about how I can use those skills into a Training Manager position. This will allow me an opportunity to increase my knowledge and understanding of what I need to gain from the overall program.  If I had to be honest with myself reading has always been a short coming of my skills so I would like challenge myself to identify not only the course required reading but identify other resources to improve my overall knowledge and understanding in the area of Learning Design. 


When I look ahead into the summer of 2024 I will have almost 3 courses finished of this program. I would except that the knowledge and skills I have learned to date,I could start integrate those into real life projects with my organization. March of 2024 I have to submit my own personal development goals for the year and have a discussion with my leader how I want to implement those goals. I will need to identify the current champion teams, projects and leaders that I will need to engage to seek an opportunity to be contributor. Another key to my success will be identifying current Training Managers that are doing the role within my organization that I can spend time with learning how they are applying the skills and knowledge I am learning into their current projects. Identifying the current tools and applications that my organization is using within the Learning and Development departments will allow me to focus on obtaining those technical skills so that my learning curve will be limited. Constant follow up with my mentor will help me stay on track and keep focused on finding success within this program and my role within my organization. Learning from others that are outside my origination will allow me to understand the Learning Designer role within other settings. So asking a lot of questions of my peers in this program and those I work with on projects will allow me to continue identify areas of improvement. 


Its hard to think of the Spring of 2025 but as I use my eight ball to focus on the future I have a lot of expectation of where I will be at that point in time. Not only will I have finished and obtained my Instructional Design and Performance Improvement certification but I will have position myself into a new career. My personal expectations of myself will be that I will have now have the appropriate education training to obtain position of Training Manger within my organization. Over the next 18 months I will have been able to apply many of the practices and theories into action via class projects, work projects, discussion forums that will have quantifiable results that I will be about lean on. My working out loud blog will be a showcase of what I have learned and applied allowing a future hiring leader to see my work in action. My personal network via my professors, peers in my classes, an increase presence on LinkedIn, and a strategic approach of developing my colleague network will have great benefits. I will have increased my written, verbal and presentation skills by seeking feedback and applying that into real life scenarios. 


Over the next 18months I know that I will conquer some of my own fears of seeking hire education everything from increased reading, to writing papers, identifying my own weaknesses and seeking improvement opportunities. In my organization receiving feedback is considered a “gift” but they also would like to see initiative in a colleague who will action the feedback. A colleague who can pick up new skills and competencies when necessary can show your dedication to the overall business and your ability to keep adding value to the “Blue Box”!  

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