Darcy Dietrich on initiative, perspective, and designing for impact
Darcy Dietrich didn’t have a clear five-year plan coming out of college. In fact, she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do at all. She worked as a hostess and server while finishing school, and later, a college advisor suggested she pursue hospitality. “I remember thinking, I don’t really like this,” she says. “Why would I build a career around something that doesn’t energize me?”
After graduation, she joined Verizon and began to see a more structured pathway in operations and account management. Across her various roles, one thing consistently stood out: “No matter what job I was in, I always gravitated toward the training moments,” Darcy says. “Whether it was informal coaching or helping with a formal program, that’s what I loved most.”
At the same time, she felt an itch to see more of the world. After taking several trips with friends, she began teaching English at a nonprofit organization in Salt Lake City helping asylum seekers prepare for citizenship. What started as an exploration quickly became something more.
That experience gave her the confidence to go further: She decided to teach abroad. After her initial plans to move to Turkey fell through, she “put a finger on a globe” and landed on Budapest, Hungary. What was supposed to be a one-year adventure turned into five. “It was incredibly rewarding,” she says. “I was learning about parts of the world I had never experienced, and it changed how I saw people — and myself.”
A pivotal lesson in ownership
Darcy’s first role in Hungary was at a kindergarten that needed an English-speaking teacher. The experience wasn’t what she expected. “I found myself twiddling my thumbs a lot,” she says. “And instead of pushing for more responsibility, I let it be what it was.”
Before leaving, she had a candid conversation with the school’s director, which has stayed with her ever since. “She told me, ‘I wish you had taken more initiative, I wish you had been more proactive,” Darcy says. “It felt unfair in the moment. But it changed how I approach my professional life.”
From that point forward, she made a commitment to advocate for herself and create her own opportunities. She found a new school she loved, earned her elementary teaching certification, and immersed herself in the craft. It was also where she met her husband.
Looking back, she sees that period as formative: “It opened my mind,” she says. “The advice to strive for more, as well as learning about different cultures and different ways of living shaped how I want to show up in the world and for other people.”
Building a career in learning
When Darcy eventually moved back to the U.S., she knew she wanted to stay in education — but in a way that bridged back into the business world. She landed in training roles to get her foot in the door and began forging a path into instructional design.
Her first role was at Carvana. “I laid low at first,” she says. “I learned the business, I understood the needs, And then I raised my hand.”
Just as the elementary school director in Budapest had pushed her to, she saw the gap and stepped into it. That throughline — identifying a need and proactively shaping the solution — has defined her career ever since.
“We’re all on our own path, and success looks different for everyone,” she says. “My favorite part of this work is helping facilitate that discovery — whether it’s kindergarteners learning to read or adults learning how to do their job for the first time.”
Designing for agents, with members in mind
Today, as a Learning Program Manager at Chime®, Darcy’s scope has expanded beyond individual training sessions to the full lifecycle of how agents are prepared for success.
Earlier in her career at Chime, she focused on instructional design: creating learning experiences tied to product launches and operational changes. But even then, her role wasn’t limited to building slide decks or e-learning modules.
“At Chime, we’re involved early,” she explains. “When a product is being scoped, we partner with product managers to shape the resources agents will use. We’re not just turning a Word document into training — we’re advocating for the agents.”
That advocacy might mean improving tooling, making workflows more intuitive, or providing feedback before something reaches members. “We get to act as strategic consultants,” she says. “Having that level of ownership and a seat at the table has been a meaningful shift in my career.”
Now, her role operates at the next layer out. She supports new hire programs from day one through roughly day 90, thinking deeply about sequencing and scaffolding.
“It’s not just about the sessions an agent completes,” she says. “It’s about how we build confidence over time — how we create space for practice, feedback, and refinement.”
At Chime, the phrase “member obsessed” is a constant. Darcy sees her version of that as agent obsessed.
“The agents are my members,” she says. “If we set them up for success, the rest follows.”
The science behind the art
One misconception she’s eager to challenge is that instructional design is purely creative. “There’s absolutely an art to it,” she says. “But it’s also a science.” At Chime, she’s leaned more deeply into analytics to inform learning strategy — measuring outcomes, analyzing performance data, and working closely with data science partners to demonstrate impact.
“Learning programs are often seen as cost centers,” she says. “It can be hard to prove you’re contributing to the bottom line.” She believes that’s a major opportunity in the field. “If you can show return on investment — if you can connect training to measurable outcomes — that changes the conversation.” It’s not easy work. It requires skills beyond traditional curriculum design. But for Darcy, that challenge is energizing.
Creating your own opportunity
The best career advice Darcy has received is simple — and hard-earned: “Don’t wait for someone to hand you an opportunity,” she says. “Create it. Be proactive. Demonstrate you’re ready.”
It’s advice born from that early conversation in Budapest and reinforced throughout her career. Whether stepping into instructional design roles that didn’t formally exist or shaping her scope at Chime, she’s learned that initiative often makes the difference.
For Darcy, growth hasn’t followed a straight line. It’s been shaped by experimentation, honest feedback, global perspective, and a willingness to raise her hand, all while helping others find their footing — and designing systems that make success possible.
