Early in 2024 I accepted a contract-to-hire position with PCMI for 3 months, reporting diretliy the the Chief Product Officer. And after I released the New Employee orientation eLearning course within a month of being hired, I was converted to full time employee.
Although I had very little training and support, I managed to learn the flagship product and established and managed the entire end-to-end global learning program for all employees and external clients.
I then built 22 Computer-Based Training (CBT) modules in the following 9 months, which reduced the Sales Team onboarding training time by 25%.
While waiting for the reviews to come back, I designed and launched the customer-facing global support portal, and built role-based employee certification tracks with integrated assessments and metric tracking. I also took over as the Administrator for the corporate LMS (ADP Essential Learning), overseeing user enrollments, compliance tracking, and executive analytics reporting.
Unfortunately, the lack of support led to them halting the remaining projects, and I was let go at the end of 2024.
Curriculum Manager 02/2024–12/2024
After one year as a contractor, I accepted a full-time position with Abbott as a Senior Instructional Designer in the Corporate Quality division. while there, I led global Quality, Regulatory Affairs (RA), Non-Conformance (NC), Post-Market Surveillance (PMS), and EHS adult learning initiatives. I created interactive, computer-based training modules using Articulate Storyline 360. These courses received high praise from management and end users.
I also created processes, procedures, checklists, and job aids to help the team follow consistent development and documentation practices. I mentored two developers and created modern, icon-based microlearning courses.
At the start of 2022, I accepted a position in a divisional Quality organization with direct reports. I supervised and mentored the instructional design staff, streamlined project workflows, and managed SME contributions from a vague idea through the implementation of the training.
I brought my established documentation and processes into the division and adapted them for its needs.
I was also an Early adopter of Synthesia, Vyond, and AI scripting tools to rapidly produce dynamic multimedia microlearning and CBT voice-overs with SSML coding.
The division I had moved to in 2022 was responsible for the BinaxNow! Covid19 test. But by 2024, the Covid epidemic had subsided, and sales went way down. As a result, in the fall of2024, Abbott had a massive layoff inthat division, and I was subsequently released.
When my Access Engineer role ended with ICONMA, I returned to Instructional Design, working for Abbott Labs as a contractor through Collabera. My original contract was scheduled to end on December 31, 2015, but it was extended into Decmber of 2016.
I was responsible for developing all documentation, e-learning, and online help for an upcoming web-based product. I used Adobe FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Help & Manual, and Articulate Storyline 2.
This was the most challenging role I had accepted because I had to complete my deliverables two full months before the product release. Most deliverables had to be localized into five other languages. The toughest part was creating screenshots while the product continued to change. The translated versions were not due until release, but the time required for translation and approval left little room for delay. Product delays extended my schedule as well.
TekSystems ended in February 2014. In June of that same year, I was hired for my first contract as a Microsoft Access Developer. I had always enjoyed working with Access and built strong databases to support my roles. Getting paid to build them was a dream come true.
ICONMA hired me to develop a database for a large health insurance company in Southfield, Michigan. The contract was originally planned for 90 days, but after developing three databases, the work was still going strong a year later, with breaks between database projects.
After working at Clipper, I contacted my old boss back at State Farm, who just happened to have one opening for a communications BA. So I contacted TekSystems, who had the position, and started working three weeks later.
Initially, I created standard communications, such as announcements and articles. But after about three months, I was once again assigned to project work as an analytics BA, doing things like conducting needs assessments, performing risk analyses, project coordination, and, of course, communications.
That all changed when I was assigned to a huge training project, and was finally back in the saddle. After being there for four months, I was finally developing training. My first project was to lead a team in the development of 25 WBTs on Verint, and I only had 8 weeks to get them done! They used Adobe Presenter, which I had never used. But after an hour, I was building courses. Since Verint is a software tool, I convinced everyone to also allow me to use Adobe Captivate, so I could build in some demos with the training.
After the Verint project, I moved over to end-user training for the entire enterprise. I built several courses on the Cisco IP phones, and another tool called Exony.
About a year later, I moved over to the support side and built online curriculum for the support teams on the Cisco infrastructure and hardware, such as VOIP 101 and VOIP 102, CDP, PDP, ICP, CUCM, and CUC. During the entire time on this project, I recorded my own voice-overs for my training, as well as for many other courses.
When that project ended, I was transferred to the company's Learning and Development department, where I continued to develop training and record voice-overs. So now I work 100% remote, sitting in my home office, developing training and recording voice-overs for others.
I went to work for Clipper after my contract with Ciber ended. Clipper was quite a challenge, in that I had to drive 230 miles each way each week. It was also challenging because I had to lead a brand-new team of developers and take over development that existing instructors had previously done. Some wondered why we needed to be there, and it was difficult having them serve as subject-matter experts.
Once again, I had the opportunity to build development policies and procedures. I used my Access skills to create a Training Management system that tracked every detail of a course.
Clipper was my first experience with a manufacturing company. Safety training became my area of expertise, along with management. I built OSHA-required safety courses with graded tests, annual recertification, and refreshers. I also created a documented on-the-job training program with objectives, instructor checklists, and standardized assessments.
I led an experienced development team, helped launch a Moodle LMS, brought in about 150 Skillsoft courses, and built an Access front end connected to the Moodle MySQL database to produce professional student transcripts. I also supported a Six Sigma program tailored for Clipper.
I regularly traveled to company headquarters in Santa Barbara to work with Human Resources, Travel, and Engineering. When Clipper was acquired, I worked closely with leadership to create an ethics course in one week that was praised by both Clipper and the new owners.
After my two-year anniversary, on my 50th birthday, the entire training department was released except for one instructor. I began searching for work again.
While living in California, I was contacted by ciber to work in Bloomington, IL as an ODA. My wife and I had already discussed leaving California for a more family-oriented part of the country. Since I was raised in Upper Michigan and also spent time in Omaha, I liked the Midwestern lifestyle. We already had our home sold and were waiting on a final closing date, so the move was straightforward.
When we arrived, Ciber put us up in a hotel for 30 days, and that first weekend we began house hunting.
Ciber hired me as a contractor at State Farm Insurance. I joined project teams and handled training, communication, technical writing and editing, and organizational change. State Farm followed the CEP process for training, which I didn't know, so I was allowed to use instructional systems design. After researching it, I found CET was a watered-down version of ISD that could be taught in a month-long class.
For change management, State Farm used Prosci's ADKAR methodology. I learned it from a book and found it very similar to ISD: real ISD includes change management throughout the ADDIE steps. ADKAR minimizes training and places more emphasis on acceptance, but the tools are largely the same under different names.
During that year, I worked on more than two dozen projects, developing hundreds of communications, news articles, and courses, including instructor-led and web-based training. I enjoyed the variety and was always learning.
As a contractor, I learned I was there to provide expert opinions and recommendations, not make decisions. I adapted quickly. Unfortunately, the recession reached the insurance industry. State Farm suspended many technology projects, shifted work to internal staff, and began canceling external contracts. After about four months, I lost mine. Two and a half years later, I returned to work for the same boss through a different vendor.
I came to Ariba because of my Instructional Design skills and database skills. I was assigned to the reporting functions as the Educational SME. I began creating instructor-led training on Ariba Analysis, which involved decision trees, XML, SQL, spreadsheets, and pivot tables. After a year, I had everything caught up and was asked to take over the web-based training from a younger instructional designer who wasn't making much progress.
I was given Adobe Captivate v2, Adobe's first release after acquiring Macromedia, which had released Captivate v1. I was asked to present a sample course in a week to the VP of Consulting. After spending a couple of hours learning the tool, I produced a 10-minute sample course the next day using one of my project management databases. They loved it, and I spent the next two years developing and maintaining their entire online curriculum offering.
However, the recession hit Ariba as companies reduced their spending or went out of business. Since my courses were free to customers and didn't bring in revenue, I was released and all online curriculum development was halted.
Years later, I was contacted and asked to return temporarily to help with customer training. Over the next two years, I was brought back three times, each for about three to four months, to develop online training branded for specific customers. I did this on evenings and weekends, averaging 30 hours each week.
After being unemployed for a couple of months, I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere without a college degree, and my two Associate degrees didn't count. This was frustrating. 10 years' experience meant nothing without a degree. So I decided I was going to have to return to my Air Force Electronics roots.
I accepted a position at Comcast as a technician level 1. I went from making $85,000/year to $34,000/year. But I was able to supplement that with overtime and sales commissions, bringing it up to about $60,000/yr.
I really enjoyed the freedom of being a technician. You're basically your own boss. You pick up your work package in the morning, then head out the door. For someone as dedicated as me, the daily route was never enough. They would give each of us 12-14 jobs each day, and I would usually pick up 10-15 more before the day was out. The only thing bad about working there was that several of the other techs didn't have the same dedication as I did. I was able to repair many customers' cable television problems that the previous technicians were unable to solve.
I was also the leader in sales. Having a sales background really helped me spot opportunities for upgrades or conversions. Many of them came from cancellation requests, where the customer was fed up with the cable problems. Instead of disconnecting them, I would fix their problem, then sell them back the service. My sales background goes way back to when I was around 10 years old. To earn money, I started selling flower and vegetable seed to neighbors. I then moved up to greeting cards, trinkets, and the Grit (publication). When I was old enough, I delivered newspapers and sold new subscriptions.
Years later, while in the Air Force, I had a part-time job as a telemarketer, where I was their top seller for 4 quarters. A few years later I took a part-time job at Sears, selling computers and small appliances. I was once again their top salesperson for 3 of the 4 quarters that I worked there.
Anyway, back to Comcast. Because of my selling, I was offered a position in the office, developing sales training for the techs. I would travel to the other offices in the region once a month, providing sales statistics and pointers. I would also do a ride-along with any tech that had trouble selling. Most of the time, it was simply because they were too shy. So I would go with them and talk to the customers. Any sales I made were given to the tech, along with the commission.
I also created a super-powerful Access database. Comcast employed to girls to manage all of the commissions for all three sales areas: technicians, store employees, and sales associates. These two girls worked full time, extracting data from a mainframe, then creating spreadsheets for each person. This process was very inaccurate.
In just a month, I built a database that did the same thing, but with 100% accuracy, and only an hour's time!
It was loaded with sales rules, ensuring the correct sales codes (discounts) were being offered and the right times and by the right teams. It would turn out a report of all anomalies. This had the unfortunate consequence of getting a few guys fired for consistently abusing discount code to make sales. After building this, I received the Employee of the Quarter award.
I created a second database that was simpler in design. This one imported address information, then parse it out by sales routes. The Sales Supervisor would then assign the data to the Sales Team, including all associated sales metrics.
Each sales person would then log into the system and print out their sales sheets on a weekly basis. Each day, the salespersons would log in and update their sales into the system, providing the Supervisor for the first time, live statistics on her team.
To improve myself, I also enrolled in and completed a BS in Information Technology with the University of Phoenix at their San Jose campus. I even enrolled in a Master's program in education and went through about half of the program before leaving Comcast.
So why did I leave? Well, now that I had my degree, I was finally getting calls. So when Ariba offered me a position, I jumped at the chance to get back into training.
Life at CIENA was good; lots of money, a challenging job in network equipment, and lots of work!
I was on a small team and assigned a couple of specific pieces of equipment to develop training on. This team was a fairly new team, so besides developing classroom training, I also created all of our processes and guides.
Things went well there until the Dot.COM blackout.
It was called a blackout because unbeknownst to me, long haul voice and data providers had been spending billions of dollars in a global fiber optic infrastructure in anticipation of heavy sales. Well, apparently they overestimated demand, which left them with thousands of miles of unused fiber lines, referred to as "dark lines". The blackout started with the smaller DSL startup companies going under, which left the local CLECs with dark lines. In turn, they cancelled their leases with the bigger companies like Sprint & AT&T, who, in turn cancelled their expansion plans.
This left many small network equipment manufacturers vulnerable, and CIENA decided to take advantage of their lost value and began purchasing many of them. That's when the layoffs started.
I made it through the first round of cuts. I even survived the second and third rounds, which came at the end of each coming month. But one morning, the news announced that CIENA just announce they released 20% of their workforce. I just knew we were done, and sure enough, about 9 am, my entire team received an emergency meeting by the VP at 10 am. Those that weren't let go, received a different email for a meeting request by the CEO. Oh well. I found out later that we were replaced by the lower-paid IDs from one of the startups that Ciena had acquired.
About a month before retiring from the Air Force, I received an offer letter from On Command. In 1999, technical jobs were pretty plentiful. But of course, that didn't last very long.
So upon retiring, I packed up my little Isuzu Hombre truck with my necessities and headed for Silicon Valley. The Air Force shipped the rest of my belongings for me.
On Command initially hired me as a Senior Instructional Designer to build a new Project Management course. So for the next four months, I kept my nose to the grinder, not just building the course, but learning about the company, adapting to civilian life, Finding my way around Silicon Valley, and adapting to the California lifestyle.
Fortunately, the Air Force taught me to be flexible, and I made it through and completed the course one time.
My next assignment was to build a Learning Management System and one course as a trial. They had more confidence in me than I did, having never attempted anything like this before. I did have my own ecommerce website, where I sold computer hardware, but that was nothing like what I was about to do.
So the next six months were spent studying other company's eLearning. But because I had my online store, I was a reseller for Intel equipment, which gave me access to their product training. So I modeled the design after there's, not knowing anything about proper UI design. I was already an expert in Microsoft Access, so building the backend brains was easy. But building the interactive front end was much more of a challenge. Fortunately for me (and On Command), they happen to have an engineer who was an expert in Visual basic, which is what ASP used. So I worked closely with him learning ASP, and after about six months, I had it up and running with one sample course, and an online exam.
During the next few months, I tested all functions and fixed whatever needed fixing. But during that time, On Command was bought out by Liberty Media. They immediately did a mass layoff and reorganization. I survived, but my Director, the man who hired me, wasn't so lucky. Feeling a sense of loyalty towards him and the company founders, along with the new plan to move the company to Denver, I decided to pursue my interests elsewhere.
Through a coworker, I learned about another job that paid more, and would be a tough challenge. I applied, interviewed and got the job with CIENA Networking.
My professional trajectory commenced in 1979 when, shortly after completing high school, I joined the United States Air Force. Driven by a desire for discipline and personal development, I embraced the military's rigorous environment to shape my character and pursue my enduring passion for aviation.
The first decade of my enlistment established a robust technical foundation. After graduating from the Electronic Warfare Training Center in Biloxi, Mississippi, I served at K.I. Sawyer AFB in Upper Michigan. It was an honor to return to my home region while spending five years maintaining the legendary B-52 fleet. I then moved to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, committing another five years to the upkeep of reconnaissance aircraft.
My career subsequently transitioned to Okinawa, Japan, for a three-year overseas assignment. This period was marked by exploration and personal grit; I took up scuba diving, an intense pursuit that included surviving a life-threatening deep-sea equipment failure. Throughout these challenges, my commitment to education remained steadfast, culminating in the completion of an Associate’s degree in Electronics during my time in the Pacific.
This academic achievement facilitated my return to Biloxi as a formal instructor, a role that proved to be the cornerstone of my professional life. Fully immersed in pedagogical theory, I underwent comprehensive training in Instructional Systems Design (ISD), technical writing, and evaluation strategies. Those efforts resulted in an Associate’s degree in Instructional Technology and an Occupational Instructor Certification. For the duration of my Air Force career, I focused entirely on navigating the intricate demands of training management and educational excellence.