Corporate Trainer

Communication within an organization is one of the key elements responsible for its success and congenial atmosphere. Better communication in an organization brings following results:

☛ 1. Better employer – employee relationship

☛ 2. Lesser confusions within the employees and with the management

☛ 3. Better productivity as the goals are clearly stated and conveyed with a clear work path

☛ 4. Better communication helps in implementing changes easily

☛ 5. Its boosts up the confidence level of the employees

☛ 6. The employees in an organization with clear communication are better motivated

☛ 7. Employees will have lesser grievances in a clear communication environment

☛ it's all about the flexibility. I'm a self-admitted planner & possess slight, um, OCD tendencies. That's okay - there's a need and a place for us - in every company, in every department, in every field. But, we must learn that nothing can be prepared for 100% and that the unfortunate by product of our technology, our long commutes, and our complex society and our large organizations is the need for flexibility. Don't sweat it and don't take it personally. If you are like me, trust me you are valued for what you bring and what you do - even if you think you never hear it or are fairly compensated for it. That's fine. Even if you make a mistake and leave a position or company because you weren't valued - you still will always need to recognize that flexibility can endear you very much to those who fly by the seat of their pants.

☛ The saying goes "no man is an island". And in the training world that's never been more true than today. You may know Photoshop, or Illustrator, or Captivate, or Lectora, or your company's LMS like the back of your hand. Trust me though, unless your a programmer who works on that program, you don't know everything - and you will get a request that you cannot fulfill - either in time and/or budget requirements. But, that's okay - deviation is expected. All those project plans you fill out, all your hours you've tracked, all those fancies spreadsheets or Microsoft Project timelines you've seen - everyone is late with work, every project cuts corners, skips steps, or somehwere along the way causes anxiety, anger or sleepless nights for a manager. You are not alone. So, when this question comes up - focus on what you did right, how you fixed it, not on the problem or casting blame.

☛ As a side note, this may be a great and opportune time to include a comment or story than demonstrates your ability to learn a business/industry - it's not just about you and your reaction - it can also be about your ability to conceptualize, organize, and maybe even evaluate a situation clearly and that's what a business needs.

☛ Here we see another place where your analysis skills are tested, but you cannot afford to get bogged down in theory or in details. Be specific, be precise, and be positive. Again, you will learn the company's process with enough practice and time, but they won't want you if you make yourself out to be a professor locked in an ivory tower, or a schlep with little refinement.

☛ Another big part of training, especially for you newbies, is the ability to see and/or make connections. Going back to that panel discussion I mentioned earlier, (it was on the difference between training and education) even when you don't consciously realize it - your brain is designed to compare and contrast things. If you can master the process and your subconscious thoughts - or you meditate/reflect on a regular basis, you can do yourself and your career a huge favor. Good training departments, like good teachers or professors, know it's not about one thin- it's about the learners & about the "company" - which for professors is the subject matter. Outside of upper management, you are one of the few areas that really gets to learn and see and spend time in many areas of a the business - especially as the company size gets exponentially larger. So, use that opportunity to your advantage and also discuss your observations - again in a positive manner, with a prospective employer. But - be prepared. If you didn't act or didn't have a chance or didn't feel comfortable approaching people about things - be prepared to discuss why and what you would have done or would do differently next time.

☛ Nope - we haven't left the dating game yet. This is another attempt to see if you'll do well and stick with the position you are applying for. Extroverts applying for a LMS administrator job may find it boring or worse, fail in the position once you master the system or once you've reached a comfort level at work. Similarly heavily introverted folks may find a traveling position, a pure trainer position, or a sales position taxing and may fail if they don't have the right skills and abilities to master the demands. So, if the manager needs more proof of your personality or there's not an obvious fit between your experience and/or personality and what you've applied for, you'll find this question or something like it will almost always come up.

☛ It's also a way for managers to initially gauge the area(s) where you may tend to get stuck or confused or where a personal bias becomes evident. Especially in smaller companies or smaller training departments, the need for folks operating in a blended capacity has increased in the last few decades, and rapidly so in the last few years as "rapid" e-learning tools have come about. Just remember - it's nothing personal - it's just business.

Discuss your qualifications, including your educational background (include specific coursework or projects), internships and professional work experience. You may also want to include some personal characteristics (e.g. motivated, hardworking, getting along with many different types of people, etc.), but do not simply list positive attributes. The interviewer is more interested in how you demonstrate these skills or attributes.

For example, instead of saying you are motivated, provide an example of how you proactively identified a need at a previous company and subsequently led a project to meet that need. This will prove that you are motivated without you just saying, "I'm highly motivated." If an employer ever asks you to "tell me about a time…" this is the type of response they are seeking. They don't want to hear that you are good at time management—they want you to provide actual examples of your time management skills.

☛ I don't disagree with using this type of question as backhanded as it is. Quite honestly there's plenty of miss-perceptions out there. Because you have a degree, because you listed this on your resume, because you have experience with this company, etc., people assume you can do this or you know that. Trust me, I'm a firm believer in business' needs to invest in people - but there's also a point where you need to know what you can and can't support. When I was teaching HS I spent several years at an very good, but small Catholic school in the inner city. Given the school's struggle with tuition, a small student population, bigotry from both minority and majority parents, perceptions about the neighborhood and the lack of resources mixed with the home lives of many students, the school continues to this day to provide a decent education. However, given the limitations of the school kids with real social-emotional problems would not find much help there, nor does it benefit the other students. I'm not about segregation - on the contrary I think one of the biggest problems with the economy and the cause of so much disparity in wealth is from the separation of the privilidged, especially regarding education. But, it's also about knowing who you are and what you can/can't do.

☛ So, all that being said, if the company has been burnt by people claiming they can do something but can't if there's reason to believe what you claim on your resume is false, or perhaps it's just the nature of the company, you may actually receive this sort of request to really test your knowledge about the program. However,

☛ it's more likely this is a way to test your ability to work out of your planned comfort zone, on a sudden request, or how you handle yourself under pressure. Very often people pick the most arcane or underused feature(s) of a particular program. Don't sweat it. Even if you don't remember and freeze up - just let it go - trying to do something out of context is also difficult - if you think of the answer at some point during the process - politely insert it in between questions.

☛ This type of question, especially if the phrasing is a bit more like the second example, puts you automatically on thin ice. Most people, even if they don't consciously think about it, don't want to hear someone bashing an old boss, fellow employee, etc. So, this question must be handled with tact and graciousness. Focus on your actions and focus on what you did to try and make the situation better. This is similar to discuss performance/training related issues and what you did to help not just "train" but also train to eliminate the cause of the problem.

☛ This is also a personality check. Besides not wanting to work with a person who blames others or bad mouths, businesses thrive when problems are solved, when initiative is taken, when someone steps up. Even if the solution isn't elegant or as soon as you finish something it becomes useless, outdated, or the like, it's at minimum an effort as seen by any employer and a learning opportunity for you.

☛ Also, going back to that earlier comment about no one being an island unto themselves, this is also a barometer on how you function as part of a team - and here you can knowingly or unknowingly give away your strengths and weaknesses.

In order to prepare a training course, I first look at the objectives for what I want to accomplish. What are my goals? What do I want my students to learn? Then I look at various methods for teaching those objectives, and look for resources that will aid in accomplishing the objectives. I also research my audience if I can, gathering information about the group I will be training and finding out what knowledge they already have that I can build upon, and what gaps they might have that I will need to address. I determine the teaching method based on what I know of my audience, what I know of my learners' needs, what I know of the facilities where I will be providing the training, etc. I try to use a variety of methods so that I address multiple learning styles, and provide ample time to practice skills.

I have led workshops that were developed by others in my organization that did not live up to my expectations, because they were not designed well. What I found was that the structure was not one that worked for me, that sometimes the information was outdated or incomplete, and that the designer had not planned for the types of questions the facilitator might encounter. As a result, I learned two things: that I must spend more preparation time with trainings that I have not designed myself in order to acquaint myself thoroughly with the information, and that I must be willing to change up the training in order to suit my style and be responsive to the needs of the audience. After every training I did the same workshop, I evaluated how it went and updated information accordingly, so that I was always prepared for questions and concerns that arose.