When I interviewed for my current position they asked me all sorts of questions about my experience with Instructional Design, Performance Support, ELearning projects, and general learning philosophies. They didn’t ask me any questions about my experience as a sports coach, in food service, or in retail.
The 1st training I ended up developing was for employees working in a Sports environment, which forced me to lean on some of my own experiences in sports. My 2nd project worked with Bakers, & my 3rd with restaurant staff. All my previous experiences ended up playing a large part in what I designed.
So I thought I’d throw it out there to you wonderful folks, what experiences have you had before becoming a trainer/training designer (or separate from current “work”) that significantly impacted your design work?