Fun Friday Question: What past job set you up for success to work with an LMS today?

I would have to say a combination of two former roles.

I used to be a high school teacher who was very interested in the online space. I started developing and facilitating online courses through MOODLE during that time.

Later I transitioned to the role of Network Administrator for an educational service agency where one of my responsibilities was running a MOODLE server for 39 school districts so I learned both the front end and back end of that system pretty well.

I started refereeing soccer when I was 18, and did so for about 20 years. I was fortunate enough to work high level matches for various youth, professional, and collegiate teams. It taught me a lot of management, quick decisions, improving myself to make better decisions, and seeing all of the pieces of teams and the overall game and how they all fit into a single system (the game itself).  It also taught me confidence to make decisions and own up when they were the wrong decision. 

Sure brother of the Inger,

1. Worked for an L&D team and lead a team of 10 for 8 years that implemented a learning system for a workforce of 40K in the healthcare industry.
2. Worked for IT for 6 years before it with a custom development group and started as a lead trainer. That gave me an important systems sense for how to wire things up at an organization and what also sounds like a brittle solution or not.
3. Before that? I adjunct lectured at the college (that I was a grad student at the school and then I later worked as a technician) for 6 years. It gave me a sense for formal learning and how to talk professionally.
4. Before that 10 years at a science center….it was never during the summer, but it did really show me what fun learning was about.
5. Oh - during the summer for those ten years? I worked with homeless kids in Summer resident camps in state parks near the NYC area. It improved my nerves for being up in front of people as well as introduced me to some team leadership activity (Do I get extra points?)

@gstager, I also worked in schools, first as a teacher then teaching teachers how to use the technology in their classrooms. I’d be curious how many of the folks in this space used to teach in schools. 

@dklinger 🤣 the extra points are yours, my friend.

The majority of my professional career has been in training! 

Started as an ILT trainer, and started dabbling in e-learning. I found that I really enjoyed e-learning development (especially for software training)  

That progressed to needing to learn how to use an LMS to host my e-learning, which evolved into me learning how to troubleshoot when folks had issues with e-learning in the LMS.

That ended up me taking on more responsibility in the LMS and eventually being an Admin.

Can’t connect my random summer job, but I can connect a hobby! I was a coach for roller derby for many years and lead practices.  A team mate/colleague suggested I apply as a trainer at our work, and thus started my journey in the training industry. 

@Annarose.Peterson did you have a derby name?!? You have to share it! If it’s NSFW feel free to message me. 😄

Ah, I have always said that working as a waitress/server in a restaurant in the USA has prepared me for just about anything.  I started working in a restaurant when I was 14…

Here are some highlights...

1. People/customers coming in to the restaurant are hungry - I mean, why else are they coming in. So hungry, grumpy people...
2. Those people mentioned in #1 above, well, a lot of them have hungry, active children - think of #1 and multiple that ‘stuff’ by A LOT... hungry and active to a whole new level and watch the fun unfold - right under the table, your feet, on top of the table...behind the bar...
3. Again, those people in #1, the ones that don’t watch the hungry, active children - well, I got to do that all whilst serving food and drink and trying to not to spill or drop anything (which happened more often than not).

NOTHING has prepared me more for life that those years working in a restaurant…

Not enough spice, too much spice - Hey, where’s my beer? - Where’s my food? - This isn’t what I wanted - this soup is cold - can you turn the heat up - can you turn the heat down (yep, same person 5 minutes later) and the list goes on and on and on.

If I can make someone happy eating a meal at a restaurant I can tackle an LMS…  😃

Lil’ Whip-her Snap-her  😀

I later dropped my name and just go by Annarose. 

oh my gosh! Yes, I could see that experience forming a person 100% Definitely not for the faint of heart. Great share, @JeanetteMcVeigh !

bahahahah, that’s awesome! 

I’ve been an accountant for over 30 years. Each new position had different software, so I’ve always been the one to write the SOPs on navigating the software. After getting my PMP and SPC, I finally changed careers to L&D, where all that previous experience made me the best candidate to lead the implementation to Docebo. Believe it or not, all those skills work very well together when working with an LMS...someone has to convince people they want to do training!

***Summer job as a paper carrier (remember when we had those?) I had to train my younger sister to correctly do my job as I had sprained my ankle!

@steveninfinger great topic!

Wow, @LDAlexPM3, switching after 30 years as an accountant is a pretty baller move. I get what you’re saying about having to learning so many new software programs over the years, that figuring out an LMS is just par for the course. Very cool!

Follow-up on the summer job. Did your younger sister get all of the money for her work or just a cut of it?  

@steveninfinger...she ate her weight in ice cream all summer long! I lost money on that deal :-) 

I feel like my situation is pretty rare because being an LMS administrator has been my entire career.

I originally went to CSU for 3 years to become a secondary education math teacher. After realizing that I was not as passionate about math as I thought, I changed majors to Business Administration with an emphasis in HR. My intent was to become a trainer. 

In 2011, I needed an internship to graduate. I found an internship at XO Communications that paid decently where I was going to help support their LMS, Enterprise Knowledge Platforms (now Netdimensions). I discovered that I was good at systems due to my logical and analytical mindset.

Fast forward over a decade and here I am, still managing an LMS. I have worked on SuccessFactors, CSOD, and now Docebo. I even dabbled with Onboarding and RCM systems. 

I never became a trainer, but it is nice to manage the system that enables people to learn. From my experience, a lot of people kind of fall in an LMS Admin role. I also see a lot of IDs, teachers, IT folks, and sys admins land in this job. It really is all over the board.

@Jessica Overby, when you say CSU, is that Charleston Southern University? 

It’s actually Colorado State University 😉

I was an educator for 17 years in public schools.  I left that to get experience teaching adults.  So I worked for a fire department as a community educator.  I taught fire prevention in schools but also fire prevention and all other types of prevention to adult groups. When we implemented a new website, I had to set up the public safety pages. Building those was very helpful in understanding how to put together and organize the LMS for our learner groups.