Instructional Design Journey

This is about my journey on becoming an Instructional Designer. I already have the title, but I don't have an extensive knowledge as my peers have unknowingly made me very well aware of. They have exposed me to ideas, theories and programs that I had no clue about which, in turn, made me realize how little I know. My personality cannot have me not knowing my job the best I can, so I am officially on a mission to submerse myself in learning more.

So why did I start this website? Well, there is no one particularly strong reason, but if I had to pin it down, I would say there are 2 stronger reasons. One, being that I am going to be taking notes anyway, why not do it in a website; creating a website is something I always wanted to do, so let's do it, I told myself. The second, a good way to learn is to deeply reflect on the material learned, so why no reflect here so it can be shared with others. 

About Me. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Management and Marketing earned in 2004, which was followed by careers in logistics and management with most of my experience being an Operations Manager for over a decade at an automotive manufacturing facility that was over 2.3 million square feet. It was a tough ride where I averaged 80 hours a week, but I absolutely would not trade any of it because I got to learn a lot from quality programs, finance, HR, safety programs, machine operations, maintenance, training, classroom facilitation, and so on. I was definitely the cliche of "jack of all trades, master of none." I even earned by SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources) certification from the HRCI Institute at one point on the very fist exam. 

Series of events led me to a new patch at 39 years years old when I was given an opportunity of becoming a technical trainer in which I would facilitate other people's instructional design work. Training always felt like it came easy to me, especially one-on-one. Fast forward a year later with the same employer and I was given the opportunity to become an Instructional Designer. I have some instructional design experience already but mostly in the creating PowerPoints, training guides and finding out what people need to be trained on, which I was reminded has a technical term of needs analysis. Last time I heard that terminolgy was 17 years ago when I was seeking my bachelor's degree in Management and Marketing. Needless to say, I had to dust off a lot of cobwebs to recall the abbreviated training I received in instructional design. 

Here's to the start. I will be building and adding to this website as time goes.