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• Own Your Story: Building a Standout L&D Portfolio - Career Transition SIG

  • When
    09/24/2026
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Webinar - link will be provided in the confirmation email

  Register

  If you're looking to transition into an L&D role, figuring out what belongs in a portfolio can be harder than building one.

  • What counts?
  • What do you do with work you can't share?
  • How do you show transferable experience without just listing everything you've ever done?
  • Once you've figured out what you have, how do you decide what your portfolio should actually look like?

  When Michelle Deshotels started building her own portfolio, she thought the hard part would be the website. It wasn't. The real work was identifying what she had done, capturing it before she forgot it, and organizing it so she could see what she actually had. Once she understood the work, she then decided what belonged, what didn't, and how she wanted to share it.

  In this 90-minute virtual session, Michelle will use her portfolio journey as a real-world example to help you look at your own work differently.

  We'll explore how to:

  • Recognize portfolio-worthy work, including work you can't share directly.
  • Show the skills and thinking behind what you've done, rather than simply listing the work.
  • Decide how to present different kinds of work, letting the work help determine the format.
  • Bring your own voice into your portfolio, while maintaining professional credibility.

  This isn't about copying a website or following one portfolio formula.

  Your work won't look the same, so your portfolio shouldn't either.

  By the end of the session, you’ll:

  • Identify what to include: Evaluate existing work, projects, and transferable experience to identify evidence that demonstrates readiness for an L&D role.
  • Showcase L&D skills: Present selected work in a way that makes the skills, thinking, and value behind it visible rather than simply listing what was done.
  • Build with purpose: Make intentional choices about what to include and how to present it based on the work, the intended audience, and the career transition goal.
  • Balance authentic voice with professional credibility: Identify ways to bring personal voice into a portfolio while maintaining the credibility needed for a professional audience.

  About the Presenter

  

  Michelle Deshotels is a San Diego-based Learning & Development leader with 25 years across operations, performance, and technology, including 15+ years building learning systems, programs, and teams that change how people work. Her career spans financial services, healthcare, and professional services.

  Michelle built her own professional portfolio from scratch, backing into it through the process of identifying what she'd actually built, what it demonstrated, and what was worth sharing. That experience became the foundation for tonight's session.

  Her career includes Chase Auto Finance, MedImpact Healthcare Systems, and Kruze Consulting, where she built learning infrastructure, led enterprise learning initiatives, and most recently developed an organizational AI adoption program that reached 100% participation. She holds the ATD Master Instructional Designer, CPTM, and DDI Certified Facilitator credentials.

  Website: michelledeshotels.com

  

  About the Career Transition SIG

  This SIG is a joint effort of the ATD-Orange County and ATD-Los Angeles Chapters and provides support and education to professionals making the exciting transition into the L&D field.

  About Your Co-Leaders:

  Kesha Thomas Clark is an experienced professional currently working to transition into the learning and development field. Recently, Kesha worked with UCLA’s Office of Undergraduate Admission and the Association for Talent Development—Orange County chapter to facilitate leadership workshops to executive staff and senior managers. Driven by a desire to help people, Kesha is interested in leveraging her unique experience in business and the nonprofit sector to create impactful strategies and learning experiences that support professional growth and organizational success.

  James Oakley is an Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer who specializes in the electrical, engineering, and technical spaces. He started out his career as a High School English Teacher and then took his passion for education into adult learning. Most recently, James developed a comprehensive curriculum of eLearning and Instructor-Led training courses for Critical Facility Engineers in Meta Data Centers across the globe. In this space, James makes meaningful and results driven training experiences for Fortune 500 companies.

  

  Earn Professional Professional Development Points

  This program is worth 1.5 Professional Development points. 

  Find out more about APTD/CPTD Certifications here.

  

  ATD Capability Model

  Each ATD-OC Learning Event will be aligned to at least one Talent Development  Capability, as identified by ATD National.

  This program aligns with:
  

  

  Building Personal Capability:

  • Communication

  Developing Professional Capability:

  • Career and Leadership Development

  Impacting Organizational Capability:

  • n/a

  
  Disruption via technology will continue to be a reality for organizations and talent development functions. Talent development professionals must have the ability to identify, select, and implement the right learning and talent technologies that serve the best interests of the organization and its people. Practitioners should be able to identify opportunities to adapt and leverage the right technologies at the right time to meet organizational goals.

  To find out more about the ATD Capability Model for the Training and Development Profession, visit http://tdcapability.org.

  

  Photography and Video Waiver

  By registering for this event, I do hereby give ATD Los Angeles and and its associates or assigns, or anyone acting under its authority or permission, the irrevocable and unrestricted right and permission to: capture the image, audio, and content via photograph, videotape, audiotape, transcription, or other means now available, copyright in its own name or otherwise, and use, reuse, publish, and republish any and all material of which I presented, or may have been included in presenting, in whole or in part. I consent to the use of all media now or hereafter known for illustration, promotion, art, editorial, advertising, trade, or any other purpose whatsoever. I hereby waive any right that I may have to inspect or approve the finished product or products and the advertising copy or other matter that may be used in connection therewith or the use to which it may be applied. If I do not provide permission, I understand that I will not activate my web camera during virtual sessions.

  REFUND/CANCELLATION: Please click here for cancellation and refund policies. We cannot guarantee that webinar/Zoom recordings will be available.

  All ADA accommodations require a 21-day advanced notice by email to office@atdla.org (use Subject line: ADA Accommodations Request) so that we can reasonably search for and secure accommodations. ATD-LA cannot guarantee that accommodations can be reasonably secured with shorter notice. ATD-LA will cover costs for accommodations as required by law, for the published duration of the event only.

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