My guest this week is Samantha Purdy who has built up a career in Learning & Development and then the broader, over-arching Organisational Development.
Like many, Samantha felt a bit lost after College and wasn’t sure about which direction to take. Despite considering to do a Social Care degree, she also looked at other options and applied for some Apprenticeships too. One was for a Business Administrator in local government and just happened to be in their Organisational Development team.
As Samantha’s skills and capability developed she was asked by her Manager if she wanted to start delivering some training. So as a 19 year old, she wrote and delivered her first training programme. Pretty scary stuff for someone so young and Samantha admits to struggling with imposter syndrome even now.
As her career progressed it took her out of public service and into the private sector…. and back again. Along the way she has picked up line management responsibility and Samantha talks about how it was easy to start in a new role as a line manager than transitioning into that type of position from within a team. She also talks about where in one Management role she oversaw a large team and her realisation that she really missed being ‘hands-on’ so left for something that was a good blend between leading a team but still being involved in daily activities herself.
This is a fantastic conversation for anyone who has wondered about the world of L&D and OD, and considered if this would be a good career as an alternative to HR. I hope you enjoy listening.