Seth wrote a post with the above title. He recommends you hire professionals or amateurs and not the bulk, who are in between.
Professionals he defines as: those who cost big bucks but are worth more, those who show up … regardless, those who have integrity and stand up and those whose learning curve is always pointed up.
Amateurs he says are those who are in it for love not money, are a wee bit obsessed with the craft and will trade income for “doing what she loves with freedom”.
The rest? The rest do it because it’s a job. Period.
As a learning and development specialist I recommend combining the top two. Amateurs and professionals.
I’m passionate about learning, mine and yours and ours. I do it because it love it. Because I wake up at 3 am and have a hard time falling back to sleep because I’m excited about a new way to turn someone onto learning. Because my mind is constantly churning out new ways to increase people and organization’s love of learning. Because I adore helping people laugh, learn and lead.
If that’s amateur then I’m a proud amateur.
As a learning and development specialist I’m also highly formally trained. I ALWAYS include professional development in each year’s business. I figure I owe it to my clients to ride the learning wave or create the wave, versus being left behind on the beach. And I charge. I charge what I’m worth – you get the full meal deal with me. Lots of international experience, decades of experience period and experience with a wide variety of sectors means I can not only handle almost any learning curve ball thrown my way, but I can throw it back with grace and grit.
If that’s professional, then that’s me.
As a learning and development specialist I grind my teeth in frustration when I hear someone (from Seth’s unwashed masses):
- complain about having to teach something to their colleagues
- claim dull content prevents them from making learning engaging
- assume they can teach simply because they’re a content expert (not realizing that training and development are a whole different skill set that doesnt’ automatically come with subject matter expertise)
I believe training and development is a calling. I’ve answered the call, loud and clear and with passion and exuberance. I get paid to do it. Fortunate me. Just call me an amafessional.
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