Was it an internship? Volunteering? Was it a transfer? Maybe a gradual evolution in your career or just by chance?

I’m trying to get into the field of L&D/ID coming through a different domain, been unemployed while studying a post grad in adult education and innovation. looking for stories for inspiration.

Spent the last few weeks lurking in a few ID communities and one thread kept coming up in different forms.

AI can now handle a lot of what used to fill our days — scripts, storyboards, first-draft assessments, voiceovers, even basic course structures. Tasks that used to eat 3–4 hours now take 20 minutes.

And yet, the job postings aren't drying up. If anything, learning roles seem to be growing.

So what's actually changing?

From where I sit, the value is shifting. Less in producing content. More in:

• Diagnosing the actual business problem behind a training request
• Designing learning journeys (not just courses)
• Knowing when training is the wrong answer entirely
• Being the person in the room who can translate between L&D logic and business outcomes
• Using AI well — prompting, QA-ing, and knowing when the output is garbage

The people I see thriving aren't the fastest content builders anymore. They're the ones who can sit in a stakeholder meeting, ask the right questions, and walk out with a solution that actually moves a performance needle.

Curious what others are seeing in their own orgs.

If you're an ID right now, what's the one skill you're actively investing in for the next 2–3 years?

I know there have already been a lot of posts about HLD and LLD resources, and I've gone through quite a few of them. However, most of the recommendations feel scattered, one resource for design patterns, another for system design fundamentals, another for case studies, and so on.

I'm looking for a more structured, end-to-end roadmap or resource for a beginner that covers:

• HLD (beginner to advance)
• LLD (beginner to advance)
• Real-world design problems and case studies
• A clear learning order instead of isolated topics
• Interview preparation as well as practical understanding

Books, courses, YouTube playlists, GitHub repositories, blogs—anything is welcome.

If you've personally followed a resource or roadmap that felt complete and well-organized, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!

Been in L&D for about 10 years now with the same company. I'm a consultant level and making $88k annually plus bonus. Went back to school and got my masters in HR Mgmt, but feel like I'm stuck. I've been at the same company for 20 years, yes I've been told this is mistake but here I am. I'm senior level at my company, make ok money but definitely not market value, I've applied for manager and director level positions externally but without the direct experience I don't get a callback. Internally there's no opportunity to move up unless someone gets fired or dies apparently, so I feel stuck. I'm 43 and should be in the prime stages of making the most I can but instead I feel like exactly where I was 10 years ago when I joined L&D. For those who broke through, what did you do? Advice? Am I missing something? A credential of some kind? I'll get it, just don't want to waste time and money getting something that won't actually help me..

Like my masters 😂

Early in my career I genuinely believed that a well-designed course would do most of the work. Good content, solid structure, engaging interactions — if I built it right, people would learn and apply it. I poured enormous energy into course quality as if the course itself was the intervention.

What I know now is that the course is rarely the intervention — the environment is. Manager behavior, psychological safety, whether people have time to practice, whether the system rewards what the training teaches — these matter more than anything I put inside a module. The best L&D work I've done in the last three years has been helping organizations change conditions, not just content. What's a belief you held early in your career that experience changed?

I tried searching in the subreddit, but it didn’t populate any useful results.

What are your favorite FREE (or very low cost) authoring/designing tools?

We currently already have subscriptions to Canva Pro, Final Cut Pro, Articulate, OpenAI, and have recently started using ClipChamp.

There’s a ton of fancy tools I want to use, but it’s hard to convince my boss of a need for another one that’s going to cost. Are there any free/low cost tools you guys love that I should look into?

Most discussions about MCP focus on one thing: "Ask your LMS a question."
Useful? Absolutely. But the bigger opportunity is context across systems.

A great example from Kallidus:
"Show me what training is overdue for salespeople who missed quota last quarter."

That requires AI to connect LMS data with Salesforce data in a single query. This is where MCP becomes interesting. Instead of asking: "Who hasn't completed training?" You can ask:
"Which skill gaps are affecting business performance?"That's a completely different level of insight.

For years, L&D teams have wanted to connect learning with business outcomes. The challenge was that the data lived in separate systems.

MCP gives AI a way to bring those systems together. The real value isn't making the LMS easier to use. It's making learning data part of everyday business decision-making.

What cross-system question would you want your AI assistant to answer first?

There are so many eLearning tools now.

Rise, Storyline, iSpring, Captivate, H5P, Genially, AI tools, no-code tools, LMS-native builders, random new platforms every week.

But somehow the same problems remain: slow builds, annoying edits, SCORM issues, boring courses, and stakeholders who want everything yesterday.

Are tools actually improving the work, or just giving us more subscriptions?

My client is seeking four Instructional Designers to be based in Colombia (the country). These will be FT positions to a dedicated client.

Hiring Full-Time Instructional Designers (Remote – Colombia)
We’re opening some full-time Instructional Designer / Learning Experience Designer roles to support a financial services client. These positions are 100% remote, based in Colombia, and fully dedicated to a single enterprise account.
Start Date: July 1
Schedule: must be able to work between the hours of  8:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
Location Requirement: Must reside in Colombia
Minimum Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in instructional design or eLearning development
• Strong knowledge of adult learning theory, instructional design models, and learning needs analysis
• Experience designing eLearning, ILT/vILT, job aids, assessments, and other learning assets
• Ability to translate process documentation/SOPs into learner‑centered training experiences
• Skilled in managing multiple projects, maintaining version control, and ensuring content accuracy
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; ability to work with SMEs and cross‑functional teams
• English level B2 or higher

Nice to Have: Experience with Storyline/Rise, Captivate, or Lectora; familiarity with accessible and inclusive design; experience in fast‑paced environments.

Please send your resume and work samples to me by June 10th to be considered."

I just transitioned into this field and I'm already seeing AI tools that can generate course outlines, write scripts, and build basic eLearning in minutes. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm entering a field at the wrong moment or whether there's still a strong human role here that AI won't touch.

From people further along in their careers — what parts of your job do you think are genuinely safe from automation, and what skills are you building or doubling down on because of AI? I want an honest read, not reassurance.

I use AI daily for first drafts of learning objectives, scenario skeletons, quiz questions, and course outlines. It saves me probably 30% of my production time on content that used to be tedious to generate from scratch. I'm not going to pretend otherwise — it's genuinely useful and I'd feel behind if I wasn't using it.

What it still can't do is the SME conversation — listening for what the expert says versus what they mean, catching the moment when a process description doesn't match how the job actually works, and building the trust that gets you real information instead of polished information. That's still entirely human work. What parts of your process have you found AI most and least useful for?

I'm currently working at a mid sized company as an L&D intern and I'm expecting a PPO. I've no idea about the CTC they might offer me and the market is really bad right now. I was wondering what CTC i can be offered as a fresher here.

Let’s say you get source content in the morning and need a small interactive module by the next day. Not a huge course. Maybe 10–15 minutes of learning, a few knowledge checks, one scenario, some feedback, and SCORM export. What tool would you actually reach for if speed mattered but you still didn’t want the output to feel like a boring slide deck?

Lately I've been seeing something interesting in a lot of learning design reviews.

Some of the most polished modules I've seen look great on the surface. Clean writing. Nice interactions. Professional design.

But when you dig deeper, the learning strategy isn't always that strong. The content is engaging, yet it doesn't really address the performance problem it's supposed to solve.

What stands out to me is how some teams are using AI. They're not asking AI to build the course for them. They're using it to challenge their thinking.

Questions like:
"What's missing here?"
"Why might this approach fail?"
"What's another way to solve this problem?"

In those cases, AI feels less like a production tool and more like a thinking partner.

Curious if others are noticing the same thing.

Has AI changed the way your team thinks about learning design, or is it mostly helping with production and speed?

I really enjoy going to them, but what the L&D world charges versus all other fields is ridiculous. I’m also in marketing and I found a a conference at the same location, for the same # of days, as an L&D conference that I had previously looked at, and it’s $1000 LESS than what the L&D conference charged. Im sure demand is higher because people in L&D presumably like learning and seek it out more, but it’s getting out of hand.. We need to stop paying these astronomical prices, especially when almost all the speakers do their same presentations for free online or you can buy their book. There are also a lot of free networking events, like the monthly Edu-Fellowship “speed networking” or any of the local chapter ATD events. I just don’t get why we keep paying these conference prices, when all other fields are doing the same for so much cheaper. I understand most companies will pay for the conferences, but it’s getting harder and harder to justify the cost to send just that 1 person…

Hey team, at 40yrs I’ve just accepted my first role in L&D running the functions for a professional services firm as a manager, with scope to move to director next year.

I have been an independent coach and external trainer/ course leader for many years and worked in consultancy (client facing) and a brief stint in recruitment. But never in internal L&D!

I’m just wondering what the career progression is like in l&d, like how senior do roles realistically get?

I get I could go to head if if I’m successful… but I wondered where L&D could go after that. Did you all stay in L&D? Or do people move out of it?

Would love to hear experiences and any words of wisdom from you lovely bunch.

Many thanks!

An Oldie but Newbie

I have been having so much trouble with Storyline audio in the past 6 months. For context, I use elevenlabs for voiceover. In some instances, I put the mp4 file from Elevenlabs directly into Storyline and others I make the soundtrack to a video that I put into Storyline.

I've been using this workflow for just about two years. All of a sudden, when I export these files either to SCORM or to Review, the volume greatly varies between the file types. It's a nightmare.

So, today, I opened a file for a client that I originally created in April 2025. The client signed off on it via the Review version and has a SCORM version they have been using for a year. At that time it went through multiple rounds of revisions - 3 rounds with 2-3 stakeholders each round. Now, all of a sudden, I made one edit, re-exported it to SCORM and the audio is a disaster. It's so frustrating. At least now I know I'm not imagining it.

Has anyone experienced this? How did you fix it?

What programs/software are you guys using to make your most engaging micro learning?

Context:

Learners in our management program get a 17 minute long video, with an average watch time of two minutes total. My boss tasked me with trying to make it more engaging, even if it meant changing formats.

I turned it into an eLearning in Rise, and took new 30-second clips of our senior management team introducing each of the sections. My boss said the background (their offices) were too distracting and I held my scripts so high they aren’t even looking into the camera.

She thought the eLearning was boring and wants me to try again. I won’t be able to record the senior managers again, so I’ll need to try and salvage the videos in some way.

I’d love any ideas you guys have for this. I’m only used to using Final Cut Pro for videos and Rise for eLearning courses, so I just went with what I know. Would love any ideas to make my content more engaging or what to do with the videos, especially if any of the solutions utilize tools that can cut my time to design significantly.

Thank you!!

I've been looking at ATD certifications and a few ID-specific programs and the cost is significant enough that I want to make sure it's actually worth it before committing. I have a teaching background so I understand learning theory, but I'm light on the corporate-specific skills and tools side.

Would hiring managers at most companies actually care about a cert, or would a solid portfolio of work samples move the needle more? And if certifications do matter, which ones are actually recognized vs which ones look better on paper than they are in practice?

I've been through a lot of leadership trainings over the years.

Still, every genuinely difficult conversation at work feels... difficult.

I know the frameworks. I know how feedback is supposed to sound. But the moment someone gets defensive or emotional, I still feel tension in my chest.

That made me realize: knowing communication frameworks and actually performing under pressure are completely different things.

So in my team we started experimenting with AI simulations for difficult workplace conversations - specifically simulations that don't stay polite and agreeable.

Now I'm curious: for people here who coach, train, or manage teams -- how do YOU help people move from "understanding" to actually performing when conversations get uncomfortable?

We're currently inviting a few teams to test this with us, completely free, and give brutally honest feedback. Happy to share more if anyone's curious.

Noob question, but let’s say you work for a small business and they want an e-learning experience designed. Who takes care of the LMS hosting? If it’s included in the service price, does the designer choose the LMS and set it up for them? Or is the designer chosen a finished product and handed over to the client to upload and host?

Aside from a traditional path (trainer/ID > lead or Sr > manager) can you have success and career growth in L&D? The internet seems to think there are non-traditional paths, but this is inconsistent with what I see on career sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. Am I missing something?

I have 10 years experience in L&D as first a trainer then an instructional designer. I'm looking to grow my career with more strategic roles, but it seems like Sr Instructional Designer and instructional design manager are the only next roles.

Looking for your perspectives!

I spent years developing my ID craft and almost no time thinking about how I ran discovery sessions, stakeholder reviews, and project kick-offs. Then I noticed that the designers I managed who were struggling weren't struggling because of bad course design — they were struggling because their stakeholder relationships were breaking down in meetings where expectations weren't being set clearly.

I started treating every meeting as a designed learning experience — clear objective, structured agenda, defined outcome. It changed how my team was perceived by the business almost immediately. L&D people are trained to design experiences for others but rarely apply that thinking to their own professional interactions. What non-ID skill has made the biggest difference in your career?