To reflect on the impact the Master’s Degree program has had on my career goals, I need to back up about 5 years.
In 2019, I had been a freelancer for many years. At the time, I was splitting my time between two projects, one developing content for Idaptive Academy, and one developing for Rapid7 Academy. I enjoyed it, but I sometimes felt like all I did was create videos. I decided that in order to continue to develop professionally, I would need to get a full time job. It took several months (with the help of COVID) before I landed at Snyk. My hope was that by working at a start-up, I could build a customer education function from the ground up, and my leadership skills would develop as the function matured and expanded. That plan went great for about eight months. I won’t detail the specifics, but it became clear over the next months that I’d never reach the goals I’d set for myself by taking that job. I did accomplish some great things. I was nominated by the growing customer education community as a “rising voice” for the field in late 2021 and again in 2022. The customer “academy” I built also won an award in 2022. My initial interest in graduate school had two parts. First, I hoped to fill the gaps of any missing skills, as it would relate to being an education function leader at a software company. Second, I’d wanted to be a university professor (very vaguely without action) when I was an undergraduate. I didn’t have the commitment (in time, money, or energy) to pursue that then, especially when I found there were other jobs I enjoyed using my writing skills. But on the personal side, as my mother started declining rapidly in late 2021, she inspired me in a warped way. She never realized her educational dreams. When she died, I had a strong impulse to not let my own dreams wither. I remember the day I came to UNT for the graduate school preview in March 2021. The speaker told a story about his wife, who had just finished her PhD at age 62 after 30 years in nursing practice. I felt like the story was told for my personal benefit, given my similar years of experience and age. The next few months were quite stressful, and I had a somewhat fuzzy picture of what it would mean to go to graduate school. But I also was experiencing an empty nest. I’d taken my kids on multiple college visits, and every time, I wanted to go myself. In my MS UNT application, I stated that I wanted to fill gaps in my knowledge to help me in my current career path as Manager of Customer Education at a start-up software company, but that I had a longer-term goal. I wanted to focus on research that differentiated university learning, learning and development within a workforce, and professional learning as a customer of a product. I knew that my experience as an “accidental instructional designer” would make me a good instructor for future customer educators. Over the course of the program, I’ve not changed that long-term goal. In fact, after some internal struggles, I recognized that leading wasn’t actually what I was after, and it would be a better fit for me to think about how I could help move the customer education field forward and teach others in that space. I did, however, change my academic plan. I started with the Teaching and Learning focus, and later switched to what is now Instructional Design and Technology. I started with one class at a time, but by the second semester decided to speed up. Spring of 2023 was very difficult. I lost my dad as well, and finally decided to leave the job without a clear plan for what was next. I took time off to finally grieve, and focused on my classes. In the summer, I found a lovely part-time contract in which I was more confident an instructional designer than I’d ever been. It balanced perfectly with taking a full load of classes. It also gave me the space to focus on my PhD applications. Through the process of talking to many people at both SMU and UNT, my PhD plans came into focus. That goal I had more than 30 years ago now seems possible, although I’m aware that it may evolve more over the next four years. I have the beginnings of a business plan if I choose to go that route. But whether I obtain a university faculty position or start my own business, I feel at peace with the goal of teaching future customer educators, and am very excited about the next step.
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AuthorMichele Wiedemer has worked in software as an "accidental instructional designer" for many years. She is currently completing the MS in Learning Technologies at The University of North Texas. This blog represents reflections on specific assignments in the coursework. Archives
February 2024
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