In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze, two professionals entering the learning field from very different directions. Alex, an emergency room nurse and EMS instructor draws a striking parallel between clinical triage and the diagnostic process of instructional design. Henri, a PhD in industrial organizational psychology at Portland State University, researched what actually motivates employees to engage in learning opportunities. Together they discuss what attracted them to the learning professions, the transferable skills they carry from emergency medicine and structural engineering, and what the ideal training pathway should look like for people doing this work. The conversation also explores how generative AI creates both opportunity and anxiety for newer professionals, why scientific communication is one of the hardest skills to build in a formal program, and what early career professionals want more experienced ones to understand about how work and learning are changing.

• Emergency medicine and instructional design share a diagnostic process: start broad, then focus.
• The opportunity to help people enjoy their work drives meaningful careers in learning.
• Communicating complex findings to non-technical audiences is one of the hardest skills to develop.
• Designing learning for a domain you have no expertise in requires deliberately better questions.
• Self-directed learning and choice within structure matter more than ever to newer professionals.
• Healthcare will always need learning professionals, but content delivery must evolve with the times.
• AI creates real opportunity for individualized learning but genuine anxiety about job security.
• Employees are not always as motivated to learn as the people designing the training.
• Applied, project-based coursework that reflects organizational realities produces the best preparation.
• Meeting learners where they are, not where the designer is, remains the fundamental challenge.

Episode 30: What the Field Looks Like When You Are Just Getting Started: Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze on Opportunity, Threat, and the Skills That Actually Prepare You for This Work

The Diagnosis Before the Design: Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze On Their L&D Journey So Far

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett, two professionals who are newer to the learning design field but bring deep experience from very different backgrounds. Emily saw firsthand how students and teachers lacked the support they needed. Andrew recognized that the lecture-based model of training in faith communities was not producing real change and turned to AI simulation to build Kairos Ready, a platform for practicing high-stakes interpersonal conversations. Together they discuss what drew them into instructional design, what transferable skills they brought with them, and what they wish the training pathway looked like. The conversation also covers how early career professionals can navigate a field being reshaped by AI, the value of apprenticeship and shadowing over isolated internships, and what newer professionals want experienced ones to understand about their perspective.

• Most learning professionals found the field by seeing something broken and deciding to fix it.
• Interpersonal skills like empathy, listening, and presence are not going away with AI.
• Hands-on project experience matters more than theory alone for career readiness.
• Apprenticeship and shadowing are more valuable than being handed isolated tasks.
• AI makes more things possible but does not make them easy.
• Early career professionals need expertise to direct AI well, which creates a real paradox.
• Curiosity and broad reading build the judgment that one semester of theory cannot.
• Starting where you already have knowledge and connections gives you a longer runway.
• Newer professionals want to learn from experienced ones, not be divided from them.
• Human connection remains the foundation of effective learning design at every career stage.

Episode 29: Nobody Says I Want to Be an Instructional Designer When I Grow Up- Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett on Accidental Careers, Broken Systems & Deciding to Fix Something That Was Not Working

Everyone Comes Through a Different Door: Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett on What the Learning Profession Looks Like From the Beginning

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Kristen Bourgault, director of instructional design programs at Quinnipiac University, where she co-developed and has taught in a fully online master's and certificate program for the past 12 years. With 25 years in higher education and nonprofit settings, Kristen has been a persistent advocate for the legitimacy of online learning, a cause she says has required fighting for the entire span of her career. They discuss what got her hooked on instructional design as a student worker building courses in Web CT, why online education has always been treated as the ugly stepchild of the university, and how her initial excitement about ChatGPT forcing better assessment design gave way to harder questions when her own students used AI to shortcut assignments she thought were AI-proof. Kristen also shares what hiring managers are telling her they actually want in instructional design candidates, why her graduates leave the program unwilling to chase shiny technology, and what quality really looks like when a student comes back ten years later to tell you what stuck.

• Online education has always had to fight harder than it should to be taken seriously.
• The human relationship is the center of online learning, not the technology.
• ChatGPT initially looked like it would force better assessment design, and in some ways it has.
• When students shortcut assignments, it is a signal to redesign, not to police.
• Making assignments easier and more connected actually produces deeper learning.
• Hiring managers want AI literacy, core ID skills, and project management in equal measure.
• Graduates who are taught to be critical of technology will not chase every shiny tool.
• Online faculty and students are consistently under-resourced and overlooked by their institutions.
• Quality shows up when learning immediately applies to a student's life and career.
• Instructional design is a durable, evolving field that is not going away.

What Hiring Managers Want From Instructional Designers Right Now- Kristen Bourgault on AI Literacy, Core Skills, and the Three Buckets Every ID Needs to Cover

“The Ugly Stepchildren of the University:” Kristen Bourgault on Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Online Learning to Be Taken Seriously