Community Showcase: Rachel Chaeyeon Lee

Luis Malbas  
Thanks for listening to the training, learning and development community podcast. My name is Luis Malbas. And this podcast focuses on exploring topics and people of interest in the learning and development space, and hopefully provide you with inspiration, focus and a sense of community in your career. In this episode, I talk to Rachel che on Lee about her journey from being an elementary school teacher to now a corporate instructional designer. A little twist to that though, Rachel is still working with kids in her own tutoring practice, and even uses her instructional design skills to guide these children learners. Rachel has been really methodical about her career shift and there's a lot to learn here. She did so many things right, worked in internship completed some certifications and an online degree and generally just stayed focused on her goals. And she still hasn't given up on her passion for educating children. Give this one a listen, I'm sure you'll find Rachel inspiring and a great guide if you're someone also looking to make the transition from teaching to instructional design. And if you find value in our content, please consider supporting us with a membership. Go to the T ldc.com/join. Sign up and get access to hundreds of our recorded videos. free entry to all of our live virtual conferences and events and more. And to start out the New Year feel free to use the discount code support TL DC to get 50% off the annual standard rate. We have lots of events planned for the year including our upcoming event, writing for instructional design taking place this Friday, January 28. A tea LDC membership is a great way to supplement and stay focused on your career as an l&d Professional. Thanks for listening. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the training learning and development community. Thanks for joining us. We've got a another community member showcase going on today. So happy to have as our guest Rachel che on Li and Rachel is kind of a kind of a newer instructional designer has a really interesting background. We're going to get to all of that in just a little bit. Before we get started. I want to remind you that on Friday, day after tomorrow, we have a really incredible virtual event happening. It's called the road to l&d teaching to instructional design. I've got about I don't know Last I checked, there were over 500 people registered, I didn't think we were going to get more than like 200. But it's sort of crazy. So vague audience for that one should be a really great full day of content about going from being a teacher to an instructional designer. Rachel, is that something you're going to go to?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Oh, actually, I would think about it. Yes. I'm key. I'm working on Friday, working that

day.

Luis Malbas  
If you sign up for it, you get the recordings. It's free. And I think it's just gonna be great. So, so check it out again. And before we get going, let's see who we got in your car. Lita is here. Yeah. Vanessa, nice to see you, Nicole. Connie, thanks for joining us. All right. So you guys probably know how this works. I've got about 10 questions, maybe 30 minutes, we're going to learn more about Rachel and I want all of you to connect with Rachel on LinkedIn or wherever you can find her on social media. Let me go and post that here. Rachel's has a great website, which I neglected to put in the put it I don't have the link handy, but I'll make sure that we get that in there. Because I really liked your website to

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
thank you. Well, actually, I have it with me. I bookmark myself. So here you go.

Luis Malbas  
There you go. Perfect. Thank you. So let me get started with the very basic thing. So your journey into learning and development. Where did that start? Yeah, so

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
um, I graduated with my bachelor's degree in education. And I was a teacher for two years. So So aside your tomorrow's or in two days, you have the podcast for journey to go through LMD from teaching, that's exactly what I did. So I started my teaching in 2019. And taught for two years in elementary school setting and in Virginia, and then the COVID head. And there were a lot of things that I was that I would avoid in teaching. So I wanted to move to another field and that's when I just searched from the internet. And that's how I found this community. A lot of YouTube channel, a lot of LinkedIn, a lot of influencer, I would say, and I signed up for one of the graduate school. I don't know because I was in the public school setting. I just love school. That's why I found my teaching job. So that's kind of like the reason why I went back to my graduate school degree because I am a strong believer of getting a degree. So there you go, because you don't technically have to go to graduate school. But I wanted that solid education. And in a degree at the end, if I'm going to spend my time and effort in it, yeah, yeah. So while I was going through my graduate school, I was still teaching. And last last year, 2021, May, I moved that half. So I finished my school year, I wanted to go to fitness it although it was quite tough during COVID, right? Uh huh. And then, right before hopping, I got my corporate corporate training job in Baltimore, Maryland. So that was my first lnd type of job in the corporate setting out of the classroom. So I will call it like a bigger, bigger job. Because teaching, I felt like I was still in school, if that makes sense, although it was my job. So I was in that corporate setting for about two months. But I could talk to you guys later. But I made another hop in two months to get the instructional design role that I have right now. And I've been on instructional designer for four months.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, congratulations. So you know, one of the things though, that I think is really interesting about you, is you still also have like your own company, thinking turtles. Yeah, you are still working with kids and teaching kids as well as working as an instructional designer right now. Right? Yes. So is there is that is that difficult? Being able to I mean, having to work both. Are there any challenges you have or benefits to doing both at the same time?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Mm hmm. Well, we're both thinking total, thank you for mentioning that. I've loved to talk about it. It's my baby. I've been tutoring and was in the teaching a teaching field for about six years beginning. My, if I think about my college year, I started tutoring since freshmen. And I just love this tutoring environment. I think tutoring has everything that I want, and not have not had things that I don't want. What I didn't want was grading, planning every night, not having that work life balance, having to go through all those protocols that the public school will have on you a lot of a lot of things on your plate. But when I do tutoring with one on one, I just focus on one kid, and I know exactly what this kid needs, what this kid knows how to do. And I have a lot more control on what I want to teach. It's just like homeschooling, but they're not my typical kids. So I love this side hustle. And one of my resolutions for this year was to expand that business and try to have a writing class in group setting. I just wanted to have more crowd to see how it goes. And my actual writing class is starting next next week on Monday, so I'm very pumped. I already know how to teach in groups, but I have never done it by myself. I recruited I recruited parents, I made planning, I found all the books that I want to teach. I found materials. I did all of those sorts of stuff by myself, which was a lot, but I love that I love. Yeah, my title. So

Luis Malbas  
you know, I'm just curious has has your experience or just your education that's led you to being an instructional designer? Do you think that it made you a better teacher?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Definitely yes. Because in terms of instructional design, in sort of design literally is about how to design instruction. And as a teacher, as a classroom teacher, in my county, I was handed the curriculum of what to teach, although they didn't tell me how to teach. I had things to teach. But when I'm doing tutoring when I'm making my private lessons, nobody really tells me what to teach. I have to find that I have to find what is the most important thing that I have to educate these children. And my client is usually Korean Americans, because I speak fluent Korean, and that's the population that I want to serve. I know there's trouble as an immigrant because they don't have enough vocabulary. They don't have enough exposure to English. So to staff that I want to really focus because they don't get that really get this from their parents or school? Yeah. So I have all these things that I need. And I'm thinking at ADDIE model in my head, because I analyze what they need I design, I, I instruct them. And I also do the evaluation phase so that I can do this all over again. So I do use all those learning theories that are you that I learned from graduate school.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that's really, really interesting. That's a that's an interesting path. I haven't heard of that very much within this space of people that are doing both, but it sounds like it's really benefiting you. And I, you know, that uniqueness can really work to your advantage, I think, you know, if you just keep on pursuing that, and sticking with it, so, you know, kudos to you. That's fantastic. Yeah. Um, so, you know, before we had gone live, we were talking a little bit about the internship, you did you bloom? Can you talk about that a little bit. So you left, you just wanted to gain some experience? So you took on that internship? Talk about that a little bit? Because I think that's something that's really, really important that the you should mention,

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
of course, so I'm sure some other fellow teachers who wants to make the hot might be listening, just like any of the teachers who want to move and get in the step to the door. I needed experience teaching job itself. Yes, you could make it work as if, like, it is an instructional design experience, which is true. I, you know, as a teacher, you design instruction, you know, what to do you know how to deliver a lesson, you know, what, what makes a good lesson or not, you know what learning objectives are, you have oldest foundational skill. But still, when I was interviewing when I was trying to find that job, it was really, really hard to find a job with just a teaching experience. I have searched everything I could, from the internet of what to say I even kind of watched my teaching title as an instructional designer from LinkedIn. But guys, it doesn't like the trick, they already know you're a classroom teacher, I'm sorry. It's in order for you to, or in order for me to stand out from other teachers, I needed some special experience. So that's how I ended up going to internship.org. It is usually for college students. But why not? I try because I need an experience. So that's where I was keep searching on any any type of work that I could do. I try to search on volunteer work, nonprofit, anything. And this is the you boom, was what I found. And my boss really, like really liked me. And we have worked together for about three months. And if I would say the workload, or the type of work that I got, it was very basic, like, like, he gave me the title as an instructional designer. But what I was really doing was to read through their training, try to see any gaps. It was it was think of it as a Google slide. I was scrolling through school slides, giving them better way to present information, if that makes sense. I didn't go through any more at all. Graffiti, but still on my resume. I have the instructional design, internship experience. And that really made me me that helped me to move this. Yeah. So you

Luis Malbas  
think it helped with getting your with the job that you have now?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Absolutely, yes. Because, yeah, people know, when you when they see their resume, they know that I try something different. They know that I, I tried to stand out and learn more. So it's really helpful.

Luis Malbas  
I also want to mention, you had said earlier before I went live that for you bloom, you are doing just about five hours a week, right? Looks like you did that for March, April, May, June, so three or four months.

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
So that said that both make a difference because on the organization's side, they are getting help that they want. And it was an unpaid internship. So to let you know, guys, because I was not doing this for compensation at all. I did that experience on my resume. Yeah. So I got what I wanted. They got what they wanted. So it all worked out.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. So you know, there is there are conversations that I have been seeing from from hiring managers that talk about, you know, your resume and your portfolio, that's fine. That's okay. You know, you. But what we really want is we want to see experience, that is the most important thing. And you know, and I know that's something that they're probably going to cover on Friday's event. But what do you say about that? Do you think that that's accurate? That's probably the most important thing you had, you know, could put into your resume his experience.

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Absolutely. And I also want to mention that after my experience at IU bloom, I switched to Well, I was actually got the opportunity to be a training specialist for two months, it was so short that I didn't really put it on my LinkedIn. But why was working there, I tried to really get the instructional designer position. And me being as a trainee specialist, was so helpful for me to make that heart, if that makes sense. me as a teacher, to become an associate, it was so much harder than me being a training specialist, and then move to instructional designer, I got so much more offer so much more interview. And actually, as a training specialist, I was doing the instructional design work. I was making instruction making video, so I had much more experience in that field. So that really led me to get the better position.

Luis Malbas  
That's great. Okay, that makes sense. That's it. That's actually a really, really good tip. So are there any things are there anything specific that you wish you had known? Like when you had started out in your career? If you could make any changes? Like shift a few things? Shortcuts? Is there anything that you can you can offer about that?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Absolutely. So as you could tell, I really did everything that I could. I searched for the internet, I searched. So many thing I hire some people to get through my portfolio, I did everything I could. But what I've missed was to prepare for interviews. I know that's like one of the world things you have to live on. Now I think about it, I missed so much opportunity, because I was saying not the best thing. When they're asking me questions. For example, they would ask you, why do you mono make the switch? And I don't know why. But I, I kind of mentioned about, you know, the work life experience and compensation that I have from teachers. But that's not really what they would want to hear if that makes sense. You, like we as a teacher really have to make a frame like we, we want this job because we like the role. And you have to brand yourself that you're an instructional designer, if that makes sense. Yeah. Interview preps? You, I think, I think it is really crucial to bring your interview answers and show it to somebody else. I was too shy to do that. But because I was struggling, I showed it to my brother, I showed it to my family, my friends. And they they can point out because if I put it in my head and think about it myself, you will not catch things. Because it's in your head. You have to talk to someone practice that interview.

Luis Malbas  
That's great. No, that's great. That's That's some great advice. And then the other thing we spoke about a little bit earlier, too is in your in your message you just completed an online degree, a master's degree. What was that degree? And tell us a little bit more about that?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yep. So I graduated from University of Maryland Global Campus, my undergrad at University of Maryland. So I knew about the online program. It's like, right, the buildings right next to my campus, so I knew about it. And when when I decided that I want the online degree, I just chose what I want. I'm close to I live in Maryland. So that's what I got. And the degree was on Learning Design and Technology. i The program was 18 months long if you don't take any breaks. So I just swept it through 18 months during COVID. I got it and what's good about it, I think I was able to really learn how to design a program. They really teach you how the ADDIE model looks like. They make you teamwork with other classmates, which is crucial. I want to talk about that because as an instructional designer, you do not work alone. You have to meet stakeholders, you need to meet other instructional designer training specialists. You meet so many so many people. I think that really helped me prepare for my actual work right now. And a lot of papers. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was great. It was it was a positive experience. Oh, absolutely. I think I needed that to get the job that I'm wanting that I have right now. But I'm sure there's a controversy of whether you need a master's degree or not. But for me, it really helped me I don't know how else I could have got it this far.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. Wow. Okay, so now let's Talk about your job now. So you're you're currently an instructional designer as well as you know, doing your thing with, with thinking turtles. But what do you do now as an instructional designer?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yes. So my company is a recruiting company. And we have recruiters, we have salesman, we want to people who gets, you know, make, make the company, work, make the money, and I am in the recruiting program. And I design, onboarding, training for recruiters, some advanced training for recruiters. So I do everything recruiters related. I collaborate with my training specialist, who actually does the teaching who makes sense, like they hold on Mike perform, and they teach their training specialists. But for me, I don't actually do the teaching, I kind of sit back and design the lesson with the training specimens, because the training specialists are really good at recruiting because they're teaching recruiters but they're not so fluent with learning theories making presentation, how to present information the right way, or the the most effective way. So that's where I come in with my expertise. And I teach them learning design, I teach them. So what is the purpose of this training? What is the learning objective? I asked those critical questions to make the training possible?

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that's really interesting. So are you getting some insight into the recruiting process now to

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
absolutely, but if somebody tells me go recruit, I don't think I could do it. It's a tough job. But I know I know it in theory, how to recruit.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. And so what do you enjoy most right now about what you do?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yes. So what I'm most enjoys talking to my training specialists to actually make the training possible. There. As you can imagine, there are a lot of conversations because we are, we're making something from nothing, because it's all in our head first, oh, we might need to make this training. And throughout the month, with a conversation with so many people, we slowly sculpt the training, and make the program possible. And I like the creation. I think I have to design a site on my in my heart. I like the designing process. I like the conversation. And on other thing I really like is actually going to your computer and design the courses like using articulatory 16. Using rice course, I design and make make the presentation nice and neat. And it's so satisfying when you do it. I really like that.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. So you're kind of a little bit of an elearning. Nerd. Yes.

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
I wish I learned more and make the articulatory 60. More articulate. We do have some ELearning Development in learning developers who like particularly knows how to articulate 360. And sometimes I get their working files. And I don't know what to do. It's like really old bands called me a little bit of real keyboard. I couldn't make it. Yeah, I'm, I'm more on a rice course.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. Okay. All right. No, that's great. That's really interesting. And it just totally seems like you're passionate about what you do You seem really energetic when you talk about this. So it's really nice to hear that. So how do you stay on top of your professional development?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yes, um, I'm in this community. And, um, you know, I was recently graduating from graduate of undergraduate schools. And so that's how I kind of kept myself on top. And I think one of the best way to continue your education is to choose the right company to work with because my company compensates around like $1,000 a year for me to go for conference, or any type of professional development you want to take and I get reimbursed. So I was able to take this paid Adobe InDesign course last year, for like three days in ours. I got I got paid as a workday, and I was able to use that time to take a paid course I was so happy, so happy to be like, you know, learning a new skill, because my job requires quite a bit of Adobe work. So I needed that I needed that boost. So I got that and this year, you know, I'm searching around shopping around to see what other courses I can get. Yeah, and that's how I keep myself updated.

Luis Malbas  
What do you want to learn right now? What's What's something that's on the top of your lap?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Like, like we talked about Have, I really liked ELearning Development type of the work for maybe articulate 360 I also like making text looks nice and neat and trendy. So I really like graphic design part of instructional designer as well. So I'm still thinking about it. And I want to use it wisely. And I have the whole year. So we'll say,

Luis Malbas  
No, that's great. That's great. So now tell me this. Is there anything about your work that is particularly challenging for you something that might be? You know, that might be harder for you to do? Is there anything you can talk about there?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yes. So I never knew about this part of my job that I would have to deal with it. But one of the things that I wish I could do better is consulting. Because when you get an inquiry about making a program, so for example, you have a stakeholder, and this person is one of the leaders in the organization, and they find a gap like, Oh, my people don't know how to do this, then they're going to come to you training, training in other development. And they're going to want to consult in talk through to see what we can do as a learning and development team. And during that moment, I have to know what to ask for, I need to be able to talk to stakeholder. And that's one of the things that I was like, it kind of makes me nervous, because sometimes it's not one on one, it could be like nine people and myself, it could be so many people that you've never met and they're in the leadership or director roles. So Whoo, I kind of need help with, you know, being positive and own that thing, because I am sitting there as an expert. Yeah, sometimes I feel like oh, my goodness, I'm talking to these, like, three, three managers that? Yeah, oh, that's kind of squabbling?

Luis Malbas  
No, that's great. Thanks for sharing that with us. It seems like, um, you know, I saw that you kind of did some mentoring for for, for younger people. Is that something that you're interested in doing too? Or do you even have any mentors in this space now that you can go to something you're looking for?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Yeah, I think my current mentors, my coworkers, because they're amazing. They know the field much better. Before I get this job, I needed some people who were already in the field to give me advice. So what I did was I actually started from from LinkedIn, like, like the, like, what the internet will say, find people on LinkedIn, I gave them really, really nice and kind message. I asked them for 10 minute call. And a lot of people were actually, you know, willing to give you a call and talk to you. And it was such an amazing experience. I got fused zoom to zoom meetings, I got few phone calls, they were also nice people, I'm still connected with them through LinkedIn. It's a great, it's one of the greatest experience, and they give you so much good insight.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah, that's one of the things about this particular space, I think, that I really enjoy is, I think, teachers, you know, generally are very generous anyway, you know, and they're, they want to help other people, they want to share knowledge, that's just kind of how they're wired. So it's kind of nice to be here. And because I don't think that I could do like these kinds of broadcasts with, you know, a bunch of pharmacists or something. But with people that are educators, everyone's pretty much willing to participate and share. And so, you know, you're totally right, you're totally right. Um, so what keeps you inspired, it sounds like you've really got an, an incredible career ahead of you. But what keeps you going,

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
um, I, I really see what I could do next. Like as a teacher, it was really hard to see career growth, if that makes about when I am in this field, I can be a Senior Source designer, I can go beyond that and be a manager of learning and development. I could learn more about graphic design and go through that path. I could learn about more articulatory 60 mb or ELearning Development, there are so many paths I could still make. And I could be a freelancer. I could find another job in corporate like there's endless opportunities. Once you put your step in the door. That that's the hard part. But once you're in there, you're you're like, you know, surrounded with all those great people with more experience than you. And maybe in the future, I might want to look are more about graphic design and be your marketing team like, there. We really don't know what path you can go this and I think that's really inspiring.

Luis Malbas  
That is great. It's a, you know that that sounds so positive and it's actually really motivating to that's, that's I'm so glad that you see that. So but if you weren't an l&d Professional say you weren't even an educator or a teacher, what do you think that you'd be?

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
That's so hard because in my heart, I wanted to be a teacher since maybe I might have gone through nursing school, because my parents wanted that. Yeah. And if I didn't have any passion on teaching, and maybe, but I'm really passionate for learning. I think it's because I have like, younger siblings and cousins since I was little. I loved teaching and you know, guiding younger people.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. Well, Rachel, I can tell that you are a passionate passionate educator. And I have talked to you know, hundreds of l&d professionals, and then I can safely say that you are definitely on the right track. It's going to be exciting to to watch your progress and see how well you do. You're just totally doing everything right. So congratulations, and I'm so glad you're part of the training, learning and development community. And thanks so much for taking the time out and introducing yourself and, and talking about your career with us. I really, really appreciate it.

Rachel Chaeyeon Lee  
Thanks so much for your time and people who are listening to thank you.

Luis Malbas  
Alright, Rachel, thanks and everybody. We'll see you hopefully on Friday, if you can do that. And don't forget, if you're a T LDC member, we have the writing for instructional design event coming up on the 28th Friday the 28th That one's going to be incredible. Um, you know, the lineup that we have is really excellent. So, make sure you keep an eye out for that you can go to the T LDC comm if you want to see more information. And with that, we'll sign off Rachel. Thanks again. And see everybody later. Bye

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