As an aspiring instructional designer, I wished, above everything, that someone would give me a chance.
I went to the networking zoom meetings, played around with as many platforms as I could, built portfolio pieces, learned instructional design language.
And then someone took a chance.
Things just got real.
I signed my first instructional design contract in December 2020.
The first lesson I learned: opportunities will come. The question is what happens after you accept them?
I learned so much my first year as an official instructional designer. Here’s a short list.
Networking is part of your job. I networked in my previous life in higher education. I volunteered for whatever stretch projects I could. I attended the very few professional development meetings my university offered. I checked in. I had coffee. I served on committees. But it wasn’t until I became an instructional designer that I learned how important networking is. And how much time it takes. Networking is part of your job, just like responding to emails, returning phone calls, making copies, and everything else you do. It’s that “other duties as assigned” part.
People want to hire me. Higher education is a very small world. There’s a lot of competition for very few jobs. And unless you want to move, there are only so many colleges or universities within driving distance of where you live (unless you are lucky enough to be fully remote). Instructional design, however, has a lot of opportunities for remote work as well as in-demand skills. Recruiters ping me periodically. You don’t have to prove anything in an interview. People already know you are rad. They just want to tell you what they need.
Creativity takes time. I have 2 degrees in creative writing, have written a novel and a dissertation, so you would think I would know this. But boy did I underestimate how long and how much effort it takes to be creative! Script writing takes time, selecting images for videos takes time, recording voiceover takes time. Ideas take time to marinate. In all your project managing and deliverable timetables, make sure to factor in how long your creative process takes. Do you go for walks, do you freewrite, do you listen to your playlist, sit and stare into space? Whatever you do to get your ideas flowing takes time.
Writing is a bit of an afterthought. Knowing my educational background stated in the last point, you can imagine my surprise. Writing has never been an afterthought to me. Since writing doesn’t have its own step in the ADDIE model, it tends to fall through the cracks at least until the final review.
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