Hello, users! 👋

Today I'm celebrating that I joined LinkedIn Learning as an instructor. 🎉

This january I experienced lots of different emotions. Becoming a LinkedIn Learning instructor also meant to me

👉 Traveling out of Spain for the first time
👉 First, 2nd, 3rd and 4th flight ever
👉 First time recording a course
👉 First time joining a team of amazing and incredible people

I wanted to write a short post about my experience, (also posting some pictures of Graz, honestly a beautiful place), so keep reading if you'd like to know more.

But first,

How did you get there?

It's been a long, long journey.

Today and more than ever I'm looking back to see myself sitting in front of my desk at my parents', designing, developing, writing, translating, doing everything I could do with a computer for 5$ (ended up earning 3€ per job), day&night learning from YouTube, Udemy, blogs, from wherever I could and for free.

Trying to figure out new ways to finish my orders faster so I could get more extra incomes, since the only job I had was in a bakery, where I started working when I was 14.

I've been 9 years trying to find a place where I could start working in what I loved, and in 2018 I reached that dream. I started working in the Smart City sector. I became an UX&UI specialist, worked with Vue, Bulma, SASS, Python... Lots of technologies that I had to keep learning at home, in weekends, by myself, to prove I deserved to be where I was, and that I was as good as those who were treating me as a kid or as a fraud in the office.

I had to leave after a whole year for legal issues with my contract and for being in a toxic environment: my bosses insulted me and humiliated me in front of my colleagues, and most of the coworkers there openly ignored me and always approached to my male colleagues.

I tried to re-focus my career into design, gave a conference and created an UX course for my town hall, I thought I could keep on strong, but I was wrong.

Every interview was worse than the previous. I heard a lot things like "Ah, but you don't have a title...", "Your profile is so good, but we have candidates with more experience..." and "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure other company will choose you without a doubt".

I had to go through hard and bad times, where I wasn't recognized at all, where I was treated as a fool for being young, or worse, as an ignorant, after 3-4 years designing and creating websites, making my path, non-stop learning and working hard for what I achieved.

I was thinking in changing my career or waiting for a miracle...

And then, a tired and disappointed girl was given the Big chance. Going to another country, all alone and for the first time, to do something she thought she wasn't prepared for.

And I said yes.

Well, I'm going to Graz

I have one word to describe the whole situation: terrifying.

I never had to pack my things and stay away from home for a long period of time, I had too many doubts and questions, but no doubt about taking that opportunity.

I've been all my life surrounded by people who think that big opportunities are a bad thing. In case you're in the same situation, read carefully: Do it. Don't let anyone scare you, if you're given an opportunity it's because you deserve it.

I heard a lot things like "But you're going alone...", "You don't know anyone there...", "How could you accept this...". I almost cried before taking the first plane in a mix of fear and impotence. But I had enough, I had already enough of people taking chances away from me.

So I took that plane and went to Graz, determined to do the job as good as I could.

"Going live"🎥

This is, by far, the most exciting, incredible and amazing adventure I had.

I felt I finally found a good place where nice people tried to do their best to keep growing, and I wanted to be part of it.

Even though, the first time I pressed the Record button I was panicking inside.

I was shaking, my voice sounded too nervous, and I felt lost most of the time when recording the first chapters... But with time and patience, I never felt that comfortable doing a job.

I already had everything prepared, but honestly, you're never prepared enough for what's coming. You'll always have to do extra work, extra efforts, be extra brave, to have things done right.

I won't lie, capucchinos were my best friends and my fuel.

I met with other spanish instructors there, so nice and willing to help. I've never met so many nice people in the same day, place and time, in my whole life.

The LinkedIn Learning team was... Awesome. I learned so much in quite a short time and I feel more grateful than I could ever describe with words, I'm so thankful that they trusted me since the first day.

How becoming an instructor feels like

Since the beggining of times (more or less when I was 10-y-o) I wanted to become a teacher, or something similar. I had a strong desire to help others and share knowledge.

Being an instructor is somehow an "almost made it🤘" of that dream. There are lots of differences but I think the motivation remains the same: sharing experience, sharing knowledge, sharing the learning motivation.

Everytime I look back I see those teachers who helped me, who believed in me when no one did. I've always wanted to give the same they gave to me, to others in the same situation where I was.

For me, that's the meaning of becoming an instructor, and even though I didn't felt that prepared, I finally surprised myself by being suitable.

One's never ready for whatever life has prepared. Remember, anyway, that taking a step back it's already a step towards what's coming next.

Things I loved and I want to show you

I have a very bad habit of showing things I love to everybody, so I can try to make them feel as I felt when I discovered those things.

This was my first adventure as a real explorer, I hope I don't disappoint you. Here is a list of things that gifted me a moment of peace, a calm atmosphere, and the "thanks God I took that plane" feeling.

➜ The River

➜ Lots of statues

➜ Art in the streets

➜ Silent, hidden corners

➜ Churches. Lots of churches.

What's next?

Keep going on, of course!

I'm so glad to say I have much work to do here, I'm expected to be a productive human being and that's what I'll try, either from Graz or from Barcelona.

I hope this is the beggining of a long-therm phase where I can keep learning a lot and keep collecting really nice memories.

I still can't say much of what I did or what I'll be doing... But I'll keep you updated, don't worry!

Thank you so much for reading this far. I hope this experience was useful, and if you're willing to become an instructor, just do it! Start sharing your knowledge, start sharing your experience and teaching others. We'll welcome you, as others did with me.

See you around, let's keep coding and learning 💻!