Please Introduce Yourself Here

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Carvalho on March 10, 2009 at 10:18am

Hello!

I'm Carlos Carvalho. I'm from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but I live in the USA. I really got into training in 1995 when I worked for Indus International. Thant's when I really got the taste of teaching software and traveling around Latin Amercia. My job at Indus International as a Training Consultant and Sales Engineer really opened the doors for me in regards of what I wanted to do in the future.

I plan to remain on this career, however, we never know. Training opens the doors for other opportunities. I've been always borrowed to perform other jobs like pre-sales or consulting, which I also like.

The greatest challenge in my profession has presented was to train over 200 people in Colombia when Internet was just arriving in the world.

My best piece of advice for people that do training is to keep themselves updated with the industry they are working in as much as they can, especially if it has to do with technology since it evolves very fast.

I hope I hear from you all soon.

Thanks,

Carlos

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Martinez on March 24, 2009 at 3:11am

Hi everyone! My name is Carlos. I started working for a Call center in Tijuana, MX. I enjoyed the training that was provided to me, so i started making my way up to that position, just so i can somehow "return the favor"....I enjoy people very much. I found out that most of the times i wasnt teaching anything new, but bringing out that knowledge that all human beings have when it comes to customer service. That has been the one job that opened the mos doors for me. I was at one point providing training for more that 3 operational activities, when the ideal thing is that one trainer attends one client. The greatest challenges are also the greatest satisfactions; people. Im from Tijuana Mexico, and since this place can offer you a job just for having a good english level, we often had to deal with the frustration of people whose dreams have been now craked by the reality of being deported. So my best piece of advice, is that since we are working with humans, we should treat them as that. A very good amount of bad attitude is caused just because no one would listen to what you have to say. So BE THERE for the people you train...Pay some genuine attention to them, and you will have all theirs. After all, thats what we are there for... Have a great day everyone!

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Permalink Reply by Rita I. Besana on March 26, 2009 at 10:27am

1. I have worked in training and organizational development since 1991. I first worked in this field with the World Wildlife Fund in Washington DC. I was translating training documents for the LAC department and I noticed that the approaches and materials they wanted to use in LAC would not work because they were focused on the North American culture. I explained to the team how they could modify the materials and content to have a better impact and they listened. My suggestions were tested in the field and the results were very good so the team asked me to join them as a trainer and they sent me to learn about training and workshop facilitation. As a member of WWF’s Organisational Development Team, I designed and facilitated training and planning workshops, carried out organisational diagnostics, provided technical assistance to WWF’s field partners, and assisted in developing training materials and guides

2. Developing and implementing Building on Experience, an organisational development strategy undertaken by RSPB on behalf of the BirdLife International Partnership. The strategy aims to address the Partnership’s needs to develop its existing expertise in order to lay the foundations for a strong, well managed and mutually supportive partnership to address the biodiversity conservation challenges of the future. Building on Experience delivers three clear benefits:

A. It increased the skills and experience available to NGOs in business management, strategic planning, project planning, fund raising, finances, conservation, advocacy and policy, and communications and thus increase their overall effectiveness;
B. It exposes staff to the perceptions and solutions of other cultures and societies and thus increase their understanding of international working;
C. It develops friendship and trust between the staff of NGOs from different cultures and continents, thus increasing the sense of cohesion and common purpose across the network globally as well as a constant cross-fertilization.

This job put me in contact with conservation leaders in over 100 countries in the world. I have developed close relationships with many of them.

3. This is the area of work that I have enjoyed the most, although I am very versatile. I would like to get into the microfinance training field in order to utilize what I learned in my B.Sc.

4. The greatest challenges I have faced have been two -- One, to deliver training to a multi-cultural group that included both Asians and Latin Americans. These cultures are diametrically opposed in how they approach the world. Latin Americans are very gregarious, loud people while Asians are quiet and reseved and never loud. The Latin Americans come across as a bit agressive and scared the Asians. To address this I included an extra session about different cultural practices (asking every participant to give us some example from his/her country). At the end of the 10 days training the two cultures were more comfortable with each other. The second challenge I have faced was a director who thought the Africans and Latin Americans had nothing to teach or to share with the Europeans (in terms of environmental conservation and other organizational issues pertaining to conservation NGOs). He was German and in his mind Europeans were ahead in everything. It was very difficult to make him change his mind and in the end he cancelled the training program.

5. I am from Mexico. I was born and raised in Guadalajara.

6. Best piece of advice? Keep your good humor and sense of self.

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Patterson on April 6, 2009 at 9:51am

Hola. I am Suzanne Patterson, a bi-lingual professional, back from living in Ciudad de Mexico for 1 1/2 years. I worked in the technology field for 15 years, developing training coursebooks and presentations and also writing 100's of manuals, online help and webpages. My last training job was with Sierra Nevada Group. I trained soldiers how to use personal handheld devices (computers) designed to give GPS, chat, send coded messages, see what was ahead on video. It was really fun software and hardware and very useful for soldiers.I previously worked giving trainings as a health educator for American Indian health programs. I gave training on program development, conducting needs assessments, grant proposal writing and training evaluation.

My last job was in Mexico City, teaching business executives how to communicate, write and listen in English. I was a business English teacher. I now reside in San Diego and am looking for work as a technical trainer or course developer. I am glad to meet this group and hope to communicate with eachof you. Bien Dia! Suzanne

Attachments:

• Suzanne Pattersoneslrainer0409.doc, 60 KB

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Permalink Reply by Juan Carlos Gonzalez Argudin on June 4, 2009 at 5:56pm

Hi, everyone at the Training Professionals group. My name is Juan Carlos Gonzalez Argudin and I am Mexican. Originally from sunny Acapulco, we then moved to Mexico City where I spent most of my still young life. My family and I moved to Aguascalientes in 2001, and we´re enjoying a quieter life here while still working internationally. Most of my work (approximately 85 %) is done out of Mexico.

I got into this profession while working as a Customer Service Representative for American Express. This job was the door opener to my current profession back in 1983, as during my career as a CSR I got a wide variety of technical and non-technical knowledge and skills. When the company migrated from one system to a major one, this created the opportunity for me to acquire a more specialized knowledge in the IT field, which eventually led to my transition to the Operations Training Department. After some few months, I was convinced this was my preferred career path and pursued a Training Diplomma. Many assignments followed where I had to move from one training topic to the other based on internal demands and global trends.

I´ve been teaching for 28 years now in the corporate environment, first as an in-house trainer and instructional designer and then as an external consultant and facilitator.

The greatest challenges that I´ve faced-during my first years- have been to establish credibility among my colleagues. Later, as a Training Manager, to manage the scarce resources we had to implement our training initiatives. During the past 15 years, the challenge has been to position myself in the international arena as well as manage my relations in a productive way to ensure I get the necessary work to guarantee our subsistance. This has been particularly challenging as during my first 5-7 years I had all the necessary work, and even more than I could handle. After 9/11 we went through extremely difficult times and we´re still trying to recover from it.

The best piece of advice I can provide is: Focus on your customer, and earn the right to advance. My second piece: Keep learning, sharpen your skills and try to keep on top of things. Increase your knowledge one step further... You will need it when the tough times come to differentiate yourself...AND THE TOUGH TIMES ARE YET TO COME...!

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