I’m talking about my work life here, and before I became a trainer, I can honestly say that work was hell.
Before I go any further, I just want to establish one fact: I disagree with the whole concept of work as something that we have to do to earn money, pay bills, and be a ‘productive member of society.’ I have no problem with work itself. I garden; I help my spouse renovate the house; I’m writing a novel. That’s all hard work and I don’t shy away from it. I just don’t like the necessity of selling the better part of my life so I can live the rest of it the way I want. It’s a devil’s bargain.
When I was young, it was retail, after school and on weekends. In university, it was seasonal, contract jobs. Now I can’t say that I hated all the jobs that I had. I enjoyed working in the library, working as a student counsellor, helping students write resumes and find job placements, I enjoyed the pet stores I worked in, and the veterinary clinic. Retail and food service, not so much. Being a security guard was the worst, despite the canine companion.
I enjoyed some of the things I got to do, like designing Web pages (in the old type-it-out-in-Wordpad days) and desktop publishing. I liked filming and editing horse shows. I was good at teaching, but aside from the subject matter, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the rest of it.
The problem was that until I started working for my current employer in 2001, all of my jobs were short-term, with no future. I was always worried where my next pay cheque would come from. Plans were out of the question. I ended up on Employment Insurance. Twice.
So I got my first real job … in a call centre. Six and a half years and varied, frantic applications for internal job postings later, I became an adjudicator. While a vast improvement over my previous position, it was still a job, something I did to pay the bills. A year and a half later, I was successful in another competition and obtained my current job.
I started off monitoring new trainees but soon had my first experience as a corporate trainer. I liked it! I immersed myself in my job and tried to do my very best. Soon, I was rewarded with further opportunities for certification, new toys with which to deliver training (SMART Board) and the means of developing a collaborative work platform for my virtual team (SharePoint).
From there, I dove into the world of free Webinars on various aspects of learning, course design, and training delivery; I started writing courses, creating videos, and designing in SharePoint. I became a social learner, a mutant learner, and, as I’ve dubbed myself, a learning mutt. It was my day-job that brought me to the world of social media, platform-building, and this blog.
I’m now well on my way to becoming a certified trainer through my employer’s program, I’ve taken courses on curriculum design and project management. I’m about to become one of a group of trainers who will be delivering a newly developed business writing course.
I’m having as much fun now as I did in university and everything that I’m learning feeds my creative soul.
I still don’t like working, but if I didn’t have to work, I might still choose to be a trainer and course designer.
Go figure …
Have you found, or lucked into, a job you like? Are you still searching? Share your journey!