From Teacher to Instructional Designer (what I did and what I wish I had known)

Sep 8

After five years in the classroom, I wanted to try something new. I moved to a different state (California), and rather than spend time getting a California teaching license, I decided to try out the tech world. I knew I wanted to work in a role that still gave me some sense of what I did as a teacher - teach and create curriculum. So after lots of research, I found a perfect role for me - Instructional Designer. In this post, I’ll share everything I did to transition from teacher to Instructional Designer.

Instructional Designers (IDs) are the people who create training, curriculum, tutorials, certification exams, practices tests, etc. for a software or product at a tech company. Depending on the company, you might be creating training for various teams: HR, engineering, customer experience, legal, etc.

The nice part about being an Instructional Designer is I’m able to use my curriculum design skills that I used as a teacher and apply them to adult learning. The only difference is how and where I learn the information you’re building content for. More on that later! Here’s a few steps I took that in my opinion helped me to land my first full-time instructional design job.

What I did

#1 - Took online classes

While I was teaching I spent some of my free time taking online classes to learn new skills outside of what I did in my day-to-day job. For me personally, I wanted to teach myself how to build websites, so I took a few courses about that. I also spent some time becoming familiar with project management by watching a series of YouTube videos.

The reason I took online classes was to help me become familiar with some of the language and terminology that I might come across in the tech industry. The benefit of taking website building classes was that I was able to demonstrate that I could learn technical topics and break them down - something that I might come across in my day-to-day as an ID. The benefit of watching the project management series on YouTube was that I was able to become familiar with the process of how I might be managed, and how I’d be expected to manage my own time.

With all of that said, here is a list of some free online classes I’d recommend you browse through if you’re interested in getting familiar with both coding and non-coding concepts that you might come across in your day-to-day as an ID!

Coding Courses

Non-coding Courses

#2 - Reworked my resume

Reworking my resume took me quite a while to get right. It was tough for me to accept that my resume for teaching would have to look drastically different for a new role in the tech world. Here are a few things I added and removed from my existing resume to rework it for an ID role.

Add experience related to leading/creating professional development for other teachers
Add experience with online learning, more specifically, building and managing courses in online learning platforms
Add experience with technologies you used to create curriculum
Add experience with video editing, video recording, and any software you used to work with videos
Remove any mention of student data, such as increasing class reading average by X% (instead, focus on which ways you used data to inform your course design)
Remove any mention of managing classes/class size, or students in general

#3 - Create a website or portfolio

Before I became an Instructional Designer, I spent my free time blogging about simple coding tutorials. I was teaching myself how to build websites, so I documented my journey in blog form. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the basis for my ID “portfolio”. Once I started to apply for ID roles, I got feedback from various interviewers that they liked specific things on my portfolio. Here are a few:

They liked that I took complex topics and broke them down into easy-to-understand tutorials
They liked that I used screenshots with clearly labeled images
They also liked that I used GIFs to show short processes

After I started working as an ID, I realized that interviewers liked these features of my blog so much because these features were a big part of what I would be doing in my day-to-day job. Having this portfolio showed them I was capable of doing the work of an ID.

For more information on how to create a website or portfolio, check out my post on How to Create an Instructional Design Portfolio.

What I wish I had known

#1 - Terminology

When I first started interviewing for ID roles, people would use words that I wasn’t really familiar with. They were common industry terms that I just hadn’t learned yet because I was new! Here are a few terms I wish I would have known before interviewing (mostly so I didn’t have to ask people to clarify!).

Course/training - AKA content that you will be creating for a product, service, or technology. Courses or trainings can take place either virtually on-demand, virtually with a trainer (also known as a VILT, or Virtual Instructor-Led Training), or in-person with a trainer. Similar to writing lesson plans for a class, you will be asked as an ID to create content and materials for a course. These can include but are not limited to: videos, slide decks, trainer notes, trainer guides, audience workbooks, on-demand courses, etc.
Stakeholder - AKA the person who has asked your team to build the course. They can be from any department within the company (Legal, Marketing, Engineering, etc.) and they need you to build a course for a reason. You probably won’t work too closely with a Stakeholder, but you will want to learn three things from them: 1) What they want you to build, 2) Who they want you to build the course for, and 3) What they want the audience to know by the time they finish the course.
SME - AKA the Subject Matter Expert. This is someone at a company who is an expert in the product/service/technology you are building a course for. You will work with the SME to learn the content you need for the course. An example of a SME is a Product Manager for a new feature that will be launching the following quarter. You will work closely with that SME to learn all about the new feature, how it works, and what information a person learning about the feature will need to know.
LMS - AKA where your team or company will host its courses. You may be familiar with this term, but I wasn’t. You can look up different LMS’s in your search engine or watch a few Youtube videos to get an idea about how they work. As an ID you probably won’t do too much work with the LMS, but it is important to know what it is, how it functions, and maybe a few examples of LMS’s.

#2 - Network on LinkedIn

When I started on my path to becoming an ID, I didn’t have a LinkedIn account. Many teachers I know don’t have one either! But LinkedIn is one of the most important places to have a job profile. It not only allows people to find you based on your skills but allows you to network with others in ID (and other) job roles. Here are two things I wish I did on LinkedIn.

Ensured my profile listed relevant experience and skills relating to the tech industry (see #3 - Reworked my resume above)
Connected with former teachers who were now in Instructional Design roles and asked them about their transition into their role.

While I wish I had done these when I was job searching, I’ve seen firsthand how networking on LinkedIn has gotten people jobs. Many teachers have reached out to me as they start their LinkedIn journey asking me about my transition into tech, and it keeps them on my radar when my team is hiring!

Conclusion

If you’re looking to transition from teaching into the tech world as an Instructional Designer, I’d recommend taking a few classes to up your technical skills, reworking your resume, and creating a portfolio or website. I’d also recommend getting familiar with terms you might hear during the interview process, as well as networking on LinkedIn. These steps will help to make you a competitive candidate for Instructional Design roles, and help you make your way into the tech world!

Want more help transitioning from teaching to Instructional Design? Buy my newest book “Teacher to Instructional Designer”!

Sam Taylor