This writing was originally published as part of the Career EdVenture newsletter on LinkedIn.

Hi! I’m Rhonda and I believe every career is a learning EdVenture.

By EdVenture, I mean the combination of education and experience. Education provides structure including knowledge, skills, credentials, and expectations. Experience introduces exploration, uncertainty, and growth. Together, they shape how people actually learn and develop over time.

My own career followed a fairly traditional path at first. I earned an engineering degree and started my career as an entry-level engineer. Over time, I advanced through roles of increasing responsibility. I managed projects, programs, people, and budgets, and continued climbing the corporate ladder. Seventeen years into my career, I retired from industry and found myself stepping into a high school engineering classroom.

That moment began my teaching journey. Over the next six consecutive school years, I taught Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses in engineering, computer science, and information technology to middle and high school students. Now, I continue to support career education by helping engineers who are pursuing professional licensure.

I’ve spent a lot of time around career education. I’ve learned over the years, how it’s talked about, how it’s structured, and how success is measured. The longer I’ve been in this space, the clearer one thing has become, preparing people for work is rarely simple.

We often describe career readiness as a destination, a checklist, or a moment when someone is finally “ready.” But in practice, readiness is built gradually, through experience, reflection, trial, and adjustment. It develops over time, not all at once.

That belief is what led me to start sharing my ideas, research, and reflections through Career EdVenture.

The name is intentional. Education gives us structure. Adventure, not in the dramatic sense, represents exploration, uncertainty, and learning through experience. When the two come together, learning becomes more durable and more human.

If you work in education, workforce development, training, or leadership, or if you’re simply thinking about how people learn and grow, this space is for you. My hope is that Career EdVenture becomes a place to pause, reflect, and occasionally reframe how we think about readiness, learning, and work.

Career paths are rarely straight lines, learning rarely happens without friction, and readiness is almost always built in motion.

This newsletter is an exploration of that journey.

I’m glad you’re here.