Starting out...

How did you get your start doing training specialist work, and what career moves did you make to get to your current position?

Do you need a particular educational background?

I am transitioning from the non-profit sector with recruiting, training and supervising stipend volunteer workers having been a large part of the job. I really enjoyed the whole training process and have decided to pursue it as my career path but in the corporate arena.
I have not received any bites yet and know that it is because I do not have "specialities" that I am equipped to instruct staff in besides Medicare and Senior adult issues.

My new approach is to still apply for trainer positions but with a proposal to work as a volunteer. I need the experience and hopefully an out of the box company will applaud my ingenuity and see the value in it for them as well. It's not like I don't have training experience but I do need polish to acclimate to the training needs of a corporation.

Hopefully this will be a helpful idea to others who are training novices.

Margie Johnson
Tennessee

I fell in to it as an extention of my supervisory/management postion 20 years ago. I had to train any new hires coming into my department. I enjoyed this part of my job the most and when the company I worked for decided to create an actual training department, I took a demotion to make the move. It was the best decision I ever made. I found my calling.

Since then I've taken classes on adult learning theory and instructional design and become a certified instructor for a variety of software applications and systems.

I would like to get into training. I have a masters in distance learning and is currently working on a second master in Teaching w/teachnoloy. My background is education. I like to start training.