This week we're launching an anonymous diary of a training director. Look out for the next exciting instalment on TrainingZone.co.uk!
This is my first entry and... what a week! Everything is running smoothly with our plans for expansion in place and what happens? Well, having placed an advert for a senior trainer on a website with very clear and specific requirements, I received five replies. Two provide me with some excellent interview material, the other three? Well very strange, but maybe you can relate to this? One was an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) college lecturer who has been working with 16- to 19-year-olds for the last 15 years; to be frank I'm not sure which bit of the 'highly experienced client-facing consultant' specification they meet. But it could have been worse, and it was; of the other two, one was a conductor (orchestra conductor) trainer – I suppose these trainers exist but it's the first time I have come across them! I guess some bright spark will argue the case of an orchestra being a well-oiled team and that there are lots of lessons to be learnt and that's as may be, but I would not want to stick said conductor in front of a group of security managers or refinery team leaders! The other was a diagnostic engineer and that is all I will say about them.
On the flip side we lost someone this week – it's a great shame but there we are, everyone wants to move on sometime. Ms. X told me on Sunday, my co-directors were told on Monday, Ms. X wanted us to tell the business on Tuesday and I received constant texts from her asking when it would go out, a mild irritant! On the drive home I suddenly registered where my soon-to-be ex-employee was – at a conference! Now I could put two and two together and get four (or five) especially when I receive a number of texts telling me how busy the conference was and how many new contacts had been made! Now I am wondering, how many contacts are for Ms. X and her new enterprise and how many are for me and my organisation?
In the future, I will tell my diary about all my adventures (good and bad), protecting the innocent and the not so innocent (unfortunately); so look out for the next instalment in the adventures of a training director.
TrainingZONE 12-Mar-08 Categories: Story read 1187
Karen Drury , 17 March 2008 @ 12:03 PM add some personality?
It's really hard to relate to Ms X; while everyone's a critic (easier by far than writing the piece in the first place!), I think you need to establish your characters to get a point across and I actually agree with Nik, the lack of names makes it even more remote. Can't you make up names? Surely easily done? Best of luck with the rest. Karen Drury
Garry Platt , 17 March 2008 @ 09:06 AM A rose by any other name?
What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
Nik Kellingley , 13 March 2008 @ 03:51 AM Anonymity
I don't know if it's the anonymity that annoys me here, or whether it's the sentence structure.
It's difficult to relate to a diary by an unknown someone. There's no reference to industry or business size.
I like the frustration shown at poor candidates but...
Why does almost every sentence end in an exclamation mark? And why are most of your sentences longer than the wait for a train in the morning?
Our profession is supposed to be about communication first and foremost. It's worrying that at your level so little thought has been given to your medium.
Having said all that, I'm looking forward to further installments - the first one is always the hardest. Nik Kellingley
This is my first entry and... what a week! Everything is running smoothly with our plans for expansion in place and what happens? Well, having placed an advert for a senior trainer on a website with very clear and specific requirements, I received five replies. Two provide me with some excellent interview material, the other three? Well very strange, but maybe you can relate to this? One was an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) college lecturer who has been working with 16- to 19-year-olds for the last 15 years; to be frank I'm not sure which bit of the 'highly experienced client-facing consultant' specification they meet. But it could have been worse, and it was; of the other two, one was a conductor (orchestra conductor) trainer – I suppose these trainers exist but it's the first time I have come across them! I guess some bright spark will argue the case of an orchestra being a well-oiled team and that there are lots of lessons to be learnt and that's as may be, but I would not want to stick said conductor in front of a group of security managers or refinery team leaders! The other was a diagnostic engineer and that is all I will say about them.
