11 Responses

1. I’m not coy
   It’s my birthday today, my 62nd. I have been involved with education and training, in various forms, for about 30 years. Still making mistakes, so still learning. Hope to get the hang of it soon!

2. how old is old?
   Hi

   I took my first training officer role at the age of 23. This was managing 70+ undergraduate trainees, recruitment, programme design, line management etc.

   When I did my diploma in training management I was by far the youngest in the group.

   I am now 42 and proud to be still in the profession I love.

   Like you I ‘fell’ in to the industry after several years in enginering.

   The only bias I had was when I tried to change jobs!

   Equally I recently experienced bias as being too experienced (read too old).

   Having almost 20 years in the profession seems to unsettle some people??

   Mike
   Learning something new every day

3. How old (young) am I?
   Hi Lyndsey

   I got into training as an extension of my branch manager role when I was around 35. Did my CIPD in my 40’s and am now 52 years young and still in the profession and still learning. I have days when I think it’s the best job in the world and days that I wonder why I’m still doing it but I’m sure that every job or profession has its good and bad points.

   Regards

   Sue

4. I started young too!
   I went from a maths degree into training at 22! I’m almost 35 now and still enjoying it. Age shouldn’t be a problem as long as you do’t pretend to have experience that you haven’t, and always respect the experience of the group.

5. Grow a beard!!
   I ‘fell’ into training at 22 after graduating with a hospitality management degree. I was concerned that employers might not take me seriously so I grew a beard (goatee beards were fashionalbe then!)to make me look a little older. I don’t think it worked. Anyway, I’m 36 now, and glad that I made the decision of am I a hospitality professional in training, or a training professional who happens to deal with hospitality employers. I did the later and have worked in a variety of industries. At the end of the day, training needs are training needs and the issues are all very similar.

   Cheers

6. You’re never too old!
   I officialy became a qualified trainer last year aged 50.
   Throughout my varied career I have trained, instructed, educated and taught staff who have worked for me but the only diference is that now I do it for staff who work for someone else.
   Age doesn’t matter it’s having the right attitude and the desire to keep learning yourself that counts.
   Good luck for your future Lyndsey.

7. So so young!
   Me? 26!

   Always been the youngest at everything!!! I fell into it while managing a sales team. Don’t let it bother you, as my manager used to say to me, “If your good enough, your old enough!”

8. Life sentence
   I feel like I’ve been training since the beginning of time; in reality I started in 1998 and I’m now 36.

9. I found the opposite!!
   I am just finishing up a part time masters degree in personnel & development and found I was one of the oldest in the class at 31. I was a retail manager who became a trainer 2 years ago becuse I liked the training side of my job best.

   Good luck in your career!
   Nikki

10. Age
    I’m 29 now and started working in training 18 months ago, I’d just turned 28.

    My sister is a trainer too and is 27, started when she was 24 or 25, and is the youngest in her team by quite a way.

11. As old as my tongue…
    … and a little older than my teeth, as my granny used to say. I’ll let you know when I get another f/t job, as I believe age has something to do with it. However, I wonder if I really want to work for an organisation that’s interested in how I got from Zoology to training, when my first degree was over 20 years ago. Some in TZ might actually say it’s quite a short step really 😉

    Paradoxically, most people are not interested in anything I did more than 3 years ago so I haven’t quite figured that one out yet!