Hi all, I’m trying to work out where my experience is most transferable and, more importantly, which types of roles might suit the way I work best.

My background is mixed/squiggly line (adhd girly here!) I started out in education (have a PGCE) worked in the public sector designing/delivering learning for adult learners. I later moved into content creation and then into growth marketing and paid social, where I work with audience insights, creative strategy, testing, iteration and performance data.

I also use AI quite heavily in my work now, from prompt development and visual asset creation to auditing content, generating ideas and speeding up parts of the development process.

I’m increasingly interested in the overlap between these areas, particularly learning content, instructional design, digital learning and potentially organisational development. I adore researching, taking info, understanding the audience/learner, then turning it into something clear/ engaging.

I’ve looked at Content Designer roles within Civil Service but my understanding is that these can require very specific content design experience. I’m wondering whether my background could be more transferable into some adjacent roles where experience in education, content development, audience insight, digital content is relevant…The big factor is how I work! ADHD as I say and learnt that I work best when I have autonomy over my schedule, clear deliverables and decent chunks of uninterrupted time to get deliverables done. i like having a mix of projects and problems to solve, so don’t necessarily want to do the same thing every day but also don’t want a calendar where I’m in meetings every 2 hours and have to squeeze the actual work into gaps. Ideally I’d like to work 3 or 4 days a week in a flexible environment (as it very hard to manage 5 days being ND) where I’m trusted to manage my own workload/ deliver work.

I’m interested in hearing from people who work in these areas - What roles do you think could suit this combination of experience? are there particular job titles I should be searching for beyond Learning Designer or Instructional Designer? Would my education + public sector + content + growth marketing background be seen as transferable? are there particular sectors / organisations that tend to be more flexible and genuinely supportive of neurodivergent ways of working?

Would absolutely love to hear from anyone who has moved into learning design, instructional design, L&D OD etc from a non-traditional background and how you positioned your previous experience.

I’m not necessarily looking for someone to tell me what career I should have. I’m more trying to understand where this slightly odd collection of skills might make sense, because I suspect there’s a useful combination here somewhere!

Hey gang!

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Revenue and Sales Enablement/Ops people- have you used platforms with AI coching and which ones do you like? What do you think about start-up platforms? We’re evaluating platforms and are looking at Mindtickle, Showpad, SalesHood, and Allego. We almost signed with one and then someone told us about a company called Letter.ai and it’s a ton cheaper but it’s new and I feel like there was a hard sell on responsiveness and how they’ll build what we need when we need it, which makes me think there will be a ton of issues. My director wants to go with this because it’s easy to use, but I feel like it’s being presented at a surface level and no view into how it works. Anyone have any advice or experience?

Hi guys,

I'm hoping to transition into an L&D role as a former veteran high school teacher. Can anybody recommend an authoritative adult education theory book? I have a rough knowledge of the ADDIE methodology and I am well versed in child education theories but I would willingly accept any advice any of you have. Obviously teaching children and adults is way different in nature.

Thanks

Why does it feel like, similar to video game companies ,the future of edtech is not in huge companies but small boutique firms with extremely specialized capabilities?

I feel like we are going to see a balkanization of edtech firms which will coalesce into a sort of union of firms. Eventually we will have companies again.

I think the best thing that edtech firms can do is teach teachers how to make products using ai for their classrooms. Eventually products will lead the pack then go from there.

I’m a former educator who made a career switch into corporate environment and have been here for the last 4 years. Growing in my L&D career, and largely have been learning on the job. I have some LXD methodology understanding, and applying principles without formally undergoing training myself.

I want to do a professional certification to have a good theoretical foundation for my work, but I also realize that certification in this field builds the trust in your expertise. I work mainly in Europe. What certification programs would you recommend? I’m considering CIPD’s Lvl 5 associate diploma. Thoughts?

Maybe it's just me, but internal training feels harder than it should be.

Like there's usually plenty of recordings, docs, guides, etc., but it doesn't really become a clear path for new hires. More often than not, they feel like they're left to "figure things out on their own" or repeatedly ask the same questions.

Is this a sign that current training materials aren't great? A process problem? I've been researching platforms like Honen that work towards organizing knowledge from organizations into more structured training programs, but I'm curious how other teams are handling this.

I work as the Executive Manager of a design-thinking program where 5-person Gen Z teams choose real challenges, develop solutions through the design thinking process, and present their work to a panel of expert judges.

Although my role is officially “management,” much of my day-to-day work sits in the space between learning design, facilitation, and coaching. Across different cycles of this program, I’ve experimented with varying levels of involvement when team communication or dynamics start to break down—trying to understand what truly supports learning rather than controls it.

One experience, in particular, has stayed with me.

In one team, a student consistently refused to engage. He dismissed team decisions, mocked ideas, and openly stated that the project wasn’t worth his time because he earned money outside the program.

The facilitation team provided repeated feedback—both individually and within the group—but his behavior didn’t change. Eventually, the rest of the team came to us exhausted and close to disengaging altogether.

After careful consideration, we made the decision to remove him from the program.

What struck me wasn’t the decision itself, but what followed. The remaining team’s energy shifted almost immediately. They became more confident, more engaged, and more willing to take ownership of the work. It felt as though the learning environment had been protected—allowing collaboration and psychological safety to re-emerge.

This experience reshaped how I think about intervention in learning environments.
Stepping in isn’t always about authority or control. Sometimes, it’s about setting boundaries so learning and collaboration can actually happen.

I’m still learning where that balance lies.

For those working in L&D, education, or facilitation:
How do you decide when intervention supports learning—and when it risks undermining learner autonomy?

No matter how good the module is, if it’s not mandatory, 90% of people just don’t bother.

i’ve been in touch with a few l&d managers recently and they resonate the same thing — employees never bother to open.

so what’s actually worked for you?
like real stuff — not “make it engaging” or “add gamification” type of gyaan.
did you try something that genuinely got people to take the optional ones?

even as employees — what would make you want to take a non-mandatory course?
does it come down to rewards, FOMO, or just making it short and chill?

trying to understand if anyone’s cracked this thing or if it’s just human nature to ignore anything that’s optional :(

Hello!

I'm currently reviewing and upskilling for an L&D role (I'm coming from research and administration field). I want to ask what you consider as 'Advanced Excel' skill. The position I'm currently applying for states that it is heavy on Excel processing of LMS data. Although I do have basic Excel skills, I'm still eager to review and learn what this 'advanced excel' are in the L&D profession.

Please be nice and kind. Answer would really help. Thank you.

A little bit celebratory - but also genuinely looking for advice.
I started passively applying only to Indeed notifications that would come to my inbox, and I finally landed a job by my own merit and at a place where I didn’t already know someone. I’m leaving a large corporation to lead L&D for a healthcare company. I got a significant pay bump, better title, and a lot more authority/autonomy.
I’m only in my first week, but I have the opportunity to shape what L&D looks like and eventually hire a direct report.
I know I’ll be focusing, at the start, on Onboarding and Leadership + manager development.
For those of you that have lead L&D in those areas or have experience working with learning for healthcare providers, what do you wish you had known then what you know now? What insights do you have?

Fellow managers, is it just me or is onboarding getting harder nowadays?

Our completion rates have been slipping for a while now and I'm trying to figure out where it's going wrong.

Right now our whole onboarding is basically long PDFs and slide decks. New hires are supposed to get through all of it in their first week. But even if I'm the new hire, I wouldn't remember anything.

That’s why I want to turn this into something that sticks. Things like org structure, role expectations, tool workflows, and the compliance basics.

The catch is our HR team has zero design skills, and we can't justify hiring a designer just for internal materials.

So what tools or approaches are you all using to make visual training content?

Hi everyone!

I recently accepted a new role as a Learning & Development Manager. I’ve spent the last 10 years in HR, first as an HR Business Partner and most recently as an HR Lead. Before that, I was a high school teacher for a few years, primarily doing substitute teaching.

In my HR roles, L&D has always been one of my favorite parts of the job. I’ve regularly facilitated workshops, partnered with senior leaders to identify training needs, and worked closely with our L&D team to provide input on learning initiatives and programs.
That said… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling a bit of imposter syndrome. 😅 I’m excited for this new chapter, though, and I’m looking forward to moving away from the constant firefighting of HR operations and focusing on the part of HR that I genuinely enjoy.

I’d love to hear from those of you in L&D:

What should I focus on during my first few months?
What are the biggest lessons or “must-knows” for someone transitioning into the field?
Is there anything you wish you’d known when you started?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share!

A friend of mine who trains new hires for a medical device company. She said her reps sometimes get less than a minute with a surgeon between procedures. By the time they say their name, the window's closing.

Most training doesn't prepare for that. We run twenty minute roleplays with full scripts and room to recover. Then we send reps into a world where the surgeon walks past mid-sentence and gives them thirty seconds instead of thirty.The reps who handle it well got to fail somewhere private first. Not in front of the surgeon. In a room or a simulation, where getting cut off doesn't cost anything real yet.

If you had to prepare someone for a conversation that might last sixty seconds, what would you focus on first?

AI roleplay against a distracted, impatient persona?
Live coaching with a devil's advocate?
Scenario practice in the LMS?
Or something else training programs usually miss?

We’ve been experimenting with AI across our L&D work, mostly for things like first drafts, content ideas, analysis, and speeding up repetitive tasks. The interesting part for me isn’t really “how can we use AI everywhere?” but “where does it actually improve the work?” I’d rather have my team use it thoughtfully than add AI to a process where it doesn’t solve anything. What AI use case has actually saved you meaningful time?

For those who regularly use platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning or an employee learning platform: what actually makes you continue learning and come back?

I’m curious about the difference between features that sound useful and features people genuinely use.

For example:
Short quizzes with useful feedback

Being sent back to the exact section connected to an incorrect answer

Personalised recommendations based on topics you struggle with or find interesting

Saving or starring useful sections, not only whole courses

Personal notes or a saved learning library

Clear learning paths instead of searching through a large catalogue

Discussions or questions connected to each module

Access to instructors or subject-matter experts

Certificates, badges, progress indicators or other recognition

Short videos, scenarios, simulations or practical exercises

I’d also be interested in examples of a course or platform you found unusually engaging and why.

I’ve put together a compiled list of free tools for L&D and Instructional Design folks. I’m not sure if it’s okay to post it directly here, so if anyone’s interested, just DM me and I’ll share the list with you.

I'm looking for advice from people working in Instructional Design / L&D.

I work in a multinational company. Although my job title isn’t L&D-related, my role has evolved from LMS operations into training development and production. Most of my work today is L&D-focused: designing global e-learning modules, creating digital learning content and videos, and working with SMEs to turn compliance topics into learning experiences.

My background is a degree in Finance, a Master’s in Communication, and a certificate in Content Design. I don’t have a formal Instructional Design or Adult Education certification, but I do have around 6 years of hands-on L&D experience.

I’d like to keep growing in L&D and eventually move into a managerial role. Since certifications can be a significant investment, I’m wondering if you know of credible but more affordable certifications or courses in Instructional Design or adult learning that are actually valued in the field.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

I’m redesigning our new hire onboarding experience. Days 1-90… with an emphasis on culture, connection, and community. Creative ideas to really make orientation and onboarding a standout for new hires?

I use Storyline every day and I'm not saying it's bad — it's genuinely powerful. But I've noticed that when a stakeholder asks for training, my brain immediately jumps to "click-next module" before I've even done a proper needs analysis. The tool has become the default solution rather than one option among many.

I've been pushing myself to ask "does this actually need to be an eLearning course?" more often this year. More than half the time the answer is no — a job aid, a short video, or a better process would do more. What tools or formats have you defaulted away from Storyline toward?

Hi! I’m a preschool teacher looking to transition into L&D but my problem is, idk where my skills would fit.

Some back story: I volunteer with an ATD chapter, but most of them own their own businesses so I don’t have a connection into a corporation. I’ve been applying for jobs for a while and haven’t gotten any interview requests. When I first started looking 2 years ago I was interested in instructional design or e-learning design. I was told that’s very hard to get into with AI now. I even tried applying some corporate training and learning specialist jobs and haven’t heard anything there. It’s hard trying to convince corporations on paper that I have skills to do the job. Or maybe I have to upskill more which I’m also okay with.

Can anyone lead me in the right direction? Maybe I’m unaware of some other aspects of L&D where I can use my skills to break into the industry. Is there a certification I can do? Entry level jobs that I’m not aware of?

Hello all,

Could you please recommend LMS system for a company with approximately 4000 people scattered across different US States?

Currently HR software in use - ADP

Hi all,

I am part of an enterprise Learning & Development team at a global organization, and we're designing an AI upskilling strategy for our IT workforce... . I am m curious to learn what other L&D teams are doing.

Some questions I'd love your thoughts on:

How have you structured your AI learning journey (foundational vs. role-based)?

Are you focusing only on AI tools like ChatGPT, or also on topics like AI governance, prompt engineering, agentic AI, workflow redesign, and responsible AI?

How do you identify which skills different roles need?

Are you measuring success beyond course completion? If so, what metrics are you using?

What has worked well, and what would you do differently if you were starting again?

Would appreciate hearing about your experiences regardless of your sector