How to Transition Into Corporate Training

Introduction

If you’ve been thinking about a transition into corporate training/learning and development (L&D), you’re not alone 🤝. Whether you’re coming from higher education 🎓, teaching 🍎, HR 👥, or some other career path, you’re probably wondering: How do I break into this field when everyone wants me to have L&D experience that I don’t technically have?

Here’s the good news? You likely have more transferable skills than you realize 🧰. Want even better news? The L&D community is full of helpful people 🙌, and I gathered some of their best advice to help you take your shot 🎯. (Hamilton style)

Let’s explore some of the most common roadblocks people run into and how to overcome them 🚧.

I don’t have any formal training experience

Let’s face it, hiring managers are looking for at least some experience, even for entry-level learning and development roles 🧑‍💼. That means if you don’t have any, you’ll have to figure out how to get some. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Volunteer 🤲 – There are a number of options for building experience in professional training as a volunteer.

Look for opportunities in organisations where you are already volunteering. Reach out to the manager or director of the organisation and ask if they have any training or content-related needs.
Volunteer job boards are another great place to look. Catchafire and Taproot are great places to start your search for opportunities.

🌐 Catchafire

🌐 Taproot

Stretch Assignment – If you’re currently employed at a company with an L&D department, reach out to the leader overseeing it. Opportunities for you to participate in a stretch assignment where you take on the duties of a learning professional for a specified period may be available. 🧪

💡 A pro tip from my network is to ask for and implement feedback from learning professionals as you go through this process.

Training is different from teaching, and both are different than presenting 🎤. A lot of the underlying principles are the same, and a little feedback can go a long way.

Screenshot of Catchafire dashboard with a greeting that says ‘Where will today take you, Jordon?’ showing volunteering options, a $2,378 impact from volunteering, and a notification panel stating ‘You’re all caught up.

I don’t know what jobs to look for

To understand what jobs to look for, you need to understand the basics of how learning organizations are structured 🏗️. Starting with the example of a larger learning organization that supports training for around 4000 people. At the top of the organization, you will typically see a vice president or director who has a series of people reporting to them, managing specialized teams.

Those teams will often include most or all of the following:

Training Delivery – Trainers who deliver instructor-led training 🗣️
Instruction Design – Designers who write content ✍️, develop the training materials, and author eLearning solutions 💻
Learning Program Managers – Project managers 🗂️ of training that partner internally within L&D and externally with stakeholders to gather training needs, drive projects, meet deadlines, and report results 📈

You may find a handful of other coordination functions, LMS administrators 🧑‍💻, and other one-off roles.

Smaller L&D organizations will still have people performing many of the same functions as larger ones, but often, those individuals need to be a jack-of-all-trades 🛠️. For a small team of two or three learning professionals, often everyone does a little of everything.

Knowing this, you can decide whether you want to target large or small organisations 🏢 and the type of roles to look for in each.

I don’t know the corporate training jargon

Every field has its own lingo 🗨️, and L&D is no exception. While you don’t need to become fluent overnight 🌙, it helps to bone up on the basic terms so you don’t get lost in translation during interviews.

Here are a few good ones to know 📘:

ADDIE: A foundational instructional design model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation)
SME: Subject Matter Expert 🧠
LMS: Learning Management System 💻
ILT / VILT: Instructor-Led Training / Virtual Instructor-Led Training 🧑‍🏫🧑‍💻
Kirkpatrick Model: A common way to evaluate training effectiveness ✅

Spend some time reading L&D blogs 📚 (mine is a good place to start), listening to podcasts 🎧, and following pros on LinkedIn 💼. The more you immerse yourself in the language, the more fluent you’ll become.

💡 Pro tip from the network: Read L&D books 📖. Learn the terminology. It shows you’re invested in understanding how corporate learning really works. I’ve curated a list of books at the bottom of the post.

I don’t know the technical parts of corporate training

A lot of folks moving into corporate training get nervous 😬 about learning platforms and tools. But here’s the thing: you likely already have relatable experience 🎮.

Even if your school, university, or current company used different systems from the corporate world, the underlying concepts are often the same 🔁.

If you know how to:

Create content in PowerPoint, you likely already have some of the principles for Articulate and Rise 📊
Host meetings in Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet, you’ll likely have some of the foundational principles of virtual classrooms like Adobe Connect or Class.com 🎥

Similar to those mentioned above, you likely have tech skills worth highlighting. Just be sure to show how you used those tools to create engaging and effective learning ⚙️.

I don’t know anyone in training

Yes, LinkedIn can feel awkward 😅. It can also feel full of buzzwords 🌀. But it’s also one of the best tools for breaking into L&D 🔍.

Start by:

Following established corporate trainers and learning leaders 🧑‍🏫
Commenting on posts with thoughtful takes or questions 💬
Sharing your journey as you build your skills 🛤️
Reaching out for advice or informational interviews 💌

The L&D community is full of generous professionals 🤗. Many of them remember what it was like to be new and are happy to help 🫶.

Conclusion: You can transition into corporate training

Be patient with yourself 🧘. Breaking into a new field takes time ⏳. You’ll send resumes and hear nothing 📭. You will overprepare for interviews that go nowhere 🚪. It might even happen that you land a job and still feel like an impostor for a while 😶‍🌫️.

That’s all normal.

Corporate training often kicks off a journey of lifelong learning 🎢. And like any learning journey, yours will include some bumps. But if you stay curious 🔍, keep building 🧱, and ask for feedback 🗣️, you’ll grow faster than you think.

No one is an expert in every tool 🧰. Fancy titles don’t mean as much as you might think 👑. All you need to do is:

Understand how people learn 🧠
Care about making learning better ❤️
Be willing to grow, experiment, and connect 🔄

If that sounds like you, you’re already on your way 🛫.

Until next time. 👋

Here’s a solid starter stack that was recommended (plus a few of my own picks):

🔹 The Art and Science of Training – Practical and thoughtful advice for L&D professionals
🔹 The eLearning Designer’s Handbook – Super helpful if you’re interested in digital content
🔹 Confessions of a Corporate Trainer – A fun and honest peek behind the curtain
🔹 Hidden Value – Great for highlighting L&D value
🔹 The Trusted Learning Advisor – Because L&D is all about relationships
🔹 Make It Stick – The brain science behind learning that actually works

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Introduction