Learning: A Lifelong Endeavor

“I didn’t know it did that!” Barbara Banker said in excitement.

“Yes, that piece of functionality came out in our last release,” Timothy Trainer shared, “it definitely improves the user experience in this section.”

“Speaking of user experience, it would be great if the software would create these records over here automatically,” Barbara continued, pointing at her screen.  “My team doesn’t know how to do it, so I do it for them manually.”

“The software absolutely can be set up that way—and I can show you how today,” responded Timothy with a smile.

“Thank you—I’m glad we went with formal training,” Barbara said, eager to learn how to make her job easier.

The above conversation is an example of a day in the life of a software trainer. Each day, we are working toward the “light bulbs” or the “a-ha” moments in our users’ software experience. Every day, we are training new users—and encouraging existing users to consider continuing education in the ever-evolving industry of software.  To accomplish our goal of continuing education, we fight the battles of cost, both monetary and time, and the users’ assumption that things can be figured out alone.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford, American industrialist

Ongoing education is vital for most industries, and mandatory in many.  While continuing education within the financial technology sector may not be responsible for saving lives (thank you, medical industry, for your concentration on continuing education!), or bettering the lives of children (thank you, education industry, for sharing your dedication to continuing education!), it is dedicated to increasing profit and efficiency.

During the life cycle of software, new functionality and enhancements are released on a regular basis.  Some of the functionality may be intuitive to new users, but oftentimes a formal dialogue with a subject matter expert ensures graceful client adoption.  Playing the so-called Telephone Game of training users ensures that with each retelling of the story, vital pieces of functionality and enhancements are accidentally discarded—with the result of user frustration and minimally accepted software.  Learning from the subject matter experts on the program eliminates frustrations and projected limitations.

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” – Sheryl Sandberg, technology executive

We cannot use software functions if we are unaware they exist—but once we do know, we can integrate that knowledge across our jobs and roles.  Learning software does not stop with implementation; software is ever-evolving and growing, and we should grow along with it.

Special thanks to Susannah Hallgarth, Manager of Education Services & Technical Documentation at Baker Hill for contributing this post. To learn more about education opportunities with Baker Hill, visit the website! 

Author Bio

As Director of Education Services and UAT at Baker Hill, Susannah Hallgarth is responsible for leading the external software training curriculum across the company’s various product lines, as well as facilitating the User Acceptance Testing side of product implementation. Hallgarth also serves as Baker Hill’s education lead and mentor to new hires.

With nearly 19 years of experience, Hallgarth has spent time perfecting her skills within Client Services' product implementation.  Her background is primarily within software training, leading various certification courses and guiding others both inside and beyond the company. She has extensive knowledge of education services, technical documentation, and software as a service implementation.

In her time with Baker Hill, Hallgarth has worked her way through the ranks, starting as a technical writer before moving into software training and implementation; she has had a promotion path from associate, senior, lead, manager, to director of her current departments. 

Hallgarth earned her bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Franklin College.