Summary: The top 3 priority items for me, in order, were to update my resume and LinkedIn profile, learn more about Instructional Design, and learn how to use eLearning authoring tools. In this post, I’m only providing general recommendations to give you a start in the right direction. More detailed posts with tactical recommendations will come later.
When I reflect on those three months of job searching, it really makes me wonder “How the fuck did I even know where to start?” I didn’t know anything about professional careers other than teaching. I didn’t know any Instructional Designers. I didn’t even know what Instructional Design was!
I suppose the most immediate need was to update my resume, which I had to use for every job application, and my LinkedIn profile, since I primarily found jobs to apply for on LinkedIn. Then upon looking through initial job descriptions for Instructional Designer, I saw that all of them asked for knowledge and skills I didn’t have yet– adult learning theory, the ADDIE model, and eLearning authoring tools. So I knew I’d have to learn those things to catch up to the playing field.
Below I share my general recommendations for you.
Resume and LinkedIn Profile
If you’re like me, then you probably haven’t applied to a new job in awhile. Teachers don’t go bouncing around from school district to school district. And you probably don’t used LinkedIn at all. I created my profile during my freshman year of college when I was procrastinating from studying for finals, and– I’m not exaggerating– I didn’t log in again until 8 years later.
Here are 10 Resume Writing Tips to Help You Land a Job from Indeed and here is How To Get STARTED On LinkedIn In 2020 from Professor Heather Austin on YouTube.
As you work on these items, be sure to get continuous feedback and advice from people you trust and other qualified professionals. At some point, I absolutely recommend finding a professional resume writer to transform your teacher resume to instructional designer resume. I paid HarvardCV $110 to write my resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn. After a month of job applications with no responses, I got two interview requests within the first week that I used the products he wrote for me. Take that for whatever it is. (Full disclosure: This is not an advertisement or referral in any way. I do not have any sort of relationship with HarvardCV beyond the initial service I paid him for.)
Instructional Design: Adult Learning and ADDIE Model
When you click on a job posting for Instructional Designer, you’ll find a long list of roles, responsibilities, requirements, qualifications, etc. It’s overwhelming. And most of it is just copy-pasted shit. (I’d share more about that on a phone call, but I won’t put any more about it in writing haha.) So let’s just focus on task at hand– filling in knowledge gaps. You need to take your teaching expertise and experiences and translate it to business language.
I recommend that you activate your free trial of LinkedIn Premium and start taking LinkedIn Learning courses. If you’ve already activated your free trial before or it expires before you land a job offer, I think the $30 monthly subscription fee is still worth it. Once you start your new job you can deactivate LinkedIn Premium.
Devote time to learn. Take notes on your computer so you can review them before interviews. LinkedIn Learning does a really good job of displaying only the important text. Here are four courses, in order, that helped me learn about Instructional Design.
- Elearning Essentials: Instructional Design
- Instructional Design: Models of ID
- Instructional Design: Adult Learners
- Instructional Design: Working with SMEs
Obviously, you can find additional articles or videos about these topics on the internet for free. However, two big value propositions that LinkedIn Learning brings are that their eLearning production is top-tier and that you can add Certifications to your profile when you complete the courses.
You taught 100-150 children every single day for 8 hours a day. I guarantee you that teaching adult learners won’t be harder.
eLearning Authoring Tools
In addition to filling in knowledge gaps, you’ll also need to learn new skills– technical skills, especially. Now before you dismiss this field entirely or doubt your own ability, let me remind you: You have learned and used all sorts of technology already as a teacher. Whether it’s instructional tools like SMART Board, standardized testing websites, or god damn Infinite Campus, you’ve done plenty of technical learning in preparation for this.
There are three programs that I recommend for you to learn: Articulate Storyline 360, Articulate Rise 360, and Camtasia. You can download a free trial of Articulate 360 for 60 days and Camtasia for 30 days. Only do this when you have time to commit to learning them. I’ll provide brief guidance for each one.
| Tool | Purpose | Learning Difficulty | Learning Priority |
| Articulate Storyline 360 | Software-based course editor. Sandbox environment. Whatever you can think, you can practically build. Best for highly-customized eLearning courses. | Hardest | Top |
| Articulate Rise 360 | Web-based course editor. Put some “Blocks” together and publish. Makes you and your boss look good with not too much work. Best for getting eLearning courses out asap. | Super easy | Pretty high |
| Camtasia | Screen recording and video editor. Professional-looking videos with attention-grabbing features. Best for creating screencasts. | Kinda hard | Not right now |
Articulate Storyline 360 is the hardest one to learn but the top priority. Every Instructional Designer should be proficient with it. Follow along and complete this course and this course on LinkedIn Learning, and you’ll know enough to publish a decent project.
Articulate Rise 360 is the easiest one to learn and probably suitable for most projects. It’s by far my favorite. By the end of taking one course on LinkedIn Learning, you’ll know enough to publish a great modern-looking project.
Camtasia would be a “nice to have” skill right now, but not a “need to have” skill. Given all of the learning you have on your plate for Instructional Design, I wouldn’t worry about this for awhile. I didn’t learn this one until I was working as an Instructional Designer.
There you have it. If you are a former teacher applying to Instructional Designer jobs, then these are my three general recommendations that will give you a start in the right direction. Again, I have to reiterate that everything I write is based off of my own experiences. I’m not an expert nor a salesman. I encourage you to take what’s helpful for you and ask around to see what others might say.
Tyler Banh 
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