6 Months in my New Role
I have been with Capital Group as an instructional design specialist since September of 2021! Working as a corporate ID is everything I hoped for when I started researching the role back in the spring of 2020.
Do I have any regrets about making the leap? Nope.
Here are some of my favorite parts of the job so far:
Converting older content
One of my favorite tasks is being assigned outdated training material and being asked to bring it back to life. Modernizing and streamlining an older curriculum means I get to use my judgment and decide what stays and what goes. I also decide what is the best new mode of delivery and prepare updated materials accordingly.
Putting my creative spin on courses
With each assignment, I try to imagine a story that will make our employees care. For example, right now I’m developing a lesson with 4 characters who pop up throughout the journey. I found one illustrator on Adobe Stock Images who has a series of beautiful animations that I’ve been incorporating throughout the digital learning experience to remind our learners of the impacts on these 4 characters. It’s unique, and I’m sure my next project will be as well.
Collaborating with SMEs
As a learning professional, I love to learn new stuff, especially about money. Every time I have the opportunity to speak with our associates who handle cases, I am fascinated and want to pick their brains! I value their feedback and build that into my training materials.
Observing facilitators deliver my designs
I feel an immense sense of pride when I get to sit back and watch our rockstar facilitators deliver instruction that I developed. They put their own spin on it, which gives me ideas for future designs. Also, based on what I observe, I like to go back and make adjustments for the next group that goes through the training. I’m grateful that my company wants us to be involved and improve upon our learning designs throughout the whole life-cycle of the project.
Problem solving tech quirks with colleagues
Almost daily, one of our IDs drops a tech issue in our group Jabber and everyone jumps in to help them solve it. Maybe SharePoint won’t allow doc edits, or a table won’t format correctly in our digital classroom, or a lesson isn’t opening properly in the LMS. Whatever it is, we normally figure it out together. The willingness to support each other is really special.
It is a relief to know that I love this work. Landing on a team with amazing managers/colleagues is a big part of why my transition went so smoothly. I’m coming back from a week long vacation in Belize, and I’m actually excited to dig into my work emails tomorrow morning. Weird, right?
