When I first became a teacher in 2012 one of my first assignments by the principle of the school was to represent the school as the Social Sciences faculty member of a county wide team appointed to redesign the Marion County Curriculum and align it to the Common Core Standards. This was my first foray into the Instructional Design process; however, I was still unaware of the field as a career option. I went on to earn a Masters in Education and as I was doing this I stayed involved in curriculum design at every opportunity afforded to be because I truly enjoy the design process. I also took every opportunity to hone my lesson planning (instructional design) for traditional and blended learning through professional development offered from the school system.

In 2014 I started the Curriculum and Instruction Doctoral program at the University of West Florida to focus on the theory behind developing curriculum and designing instruction. As I progressed through the doctoral program my intentions were always to become a professor at an institution of higher education. Eventually, there was a shift in my professional objectives in 2017 as I learned of the Instructional Design profession during my studies. I decided to pursue my Specialist Degree; which, is a terminal degree in the corporate environment in-route to my doctorate. I had to choose a capstone project and mine was rooted in curriculum and instructional design research to further develop my understanding of educational theory and scientifically proven ID methods and procedures. It was at this point that I knew Instructional Design was the career path that I was going to pursue.

My goal was to leave teaching in the 2017-2018 school year after eight years of being a teacher. I knew that my theoretical knowledge of Instructional Design and Education had provided me with advanced proficiency in the area. Although, I also knew that I need to gain practical experience, and understand the profession not only from an educational standpoint, but also from a professional real-life point of view.

First, I bought a book that was recommended to me by a friend who had been practicing ID for some time (Instructional Design Step-by-Step: John S. Hoffman). This book was a very good read taking a more corporate view of the process than I had previously been exposed to. Although, much of the information was repetitive from my college course work, it took on a more real-life situational view of the process. Next I read another book (Instructional Development Step-by-Step: John S. Hoffman) this book allowed me to better understand the development phase for traditional, blended, and elearning courses again from a real-life work related point of view. My next step was to start my limited liability corporation Enterprise Pursuits L.L.C. to help non-profits, corporations, small-businesses, and schools develop instruction that improves revenue and performance. I started leveraging my personal connections; family members and friends who owned businesses, or were in management positions. I gained a few small contracts that allowed me gain valuable experience in the industry. A Lot of my contacts were unpaid and essentially an internship; although, I was freelancing for free I was gaining valuable experience.

I started to research Instructional Design and found a podcast that everyone looking to delve into ID work should definitely listen to Kristin Anthony’s Dear ID. This podcast provided me with a birds eye view of the viewpoint of professionals currently in the ID profession. Kristin advocates for starting an online portfolio and she even created a course to help you through this process. I worked through this course and started Free Code Camp too around this time after being inspired by Kristen.

In July of 2017 I completed my Specialist Degree from UWF in ID. I was doing some work for a couple organizations providing traditional training, blended learning, webinars, and e-learning that had successfully increased performance, and resulted businesses sales improving. I also started asking for references, and if I could display the work on my portfolio. Everyone provided me with references, but I was surprised when the small corporations I was working with told me my projects were proprietary and would not let me display them. I decided that on Thanksgiving brake, and Christmas brake that I would complete my website/eportfolio. I listened to every Dear ID episode there is, and started Connie Malamad’s podcast the Elearning Coach. It is different than Dear ID because it is less polished, but it also provides excellent information. I also took Connie’s email course breaking into ID that had a lot of helpful information.

When choosing what kind of platform to use when developing my website I decided to use a static HTML5 template and do the programing myself. This allowed me to sharpen my coding skills that I had been working on in Free Code Camp and make it the way I wanted it to look without compromise. Amazon web services is my hosting platform. Although, I decided to us a Jekyll Blog that I hosted on github. I coded the blog myself aligning its appearance with my static website. I used Jekyll because it makes writing post a much easier process than a static site. By the time I went back to school after New Years in 2018 my portfolio was up and running.

To gain more experience as an Instructional Designer I enrolled into the Designers for Learning course as an volunteer designer, which provided excellent experience. This is another must do for anyone transitioning into ID who does not have direct experience. I also, took their course Design in the Open, this course focuses on showing your work and networking; it is very valuable.

The next process was to rebrand myself from being a teacher to an Instructional Designer now that I had experience. I updated my linkedin, facebook, twitter, google accounts, google plus, github, etcetera to align with my online portfolio and market me as an instructional designer. I took a long hard long look at everything I had done as a teacher and how it aligned to my new profession then I celebrated this. One of the things I found was that as a teacher one is producing rapid instructional developments when lesson planning and then facilitating the training; this was my springboard to my new professional persona.

I became very active with the Instructional Design Reddit. Then I joined the Facebook and Linkedin groups related to instructional design, although I am not as active in these groups as I am the Reddit group I tend to lurk and read but don’t engage. Really, it’s just finding enough time in the day, being involved in every group is imposable. I suggest finding the people you are comfortable with that inspire you and sharing with them.
Next I sat down one saturday and friended every ID I could find on linkedin within my area. It was hundreds and most accepted my request. On twitter I also friended as many IDs as I could and this has been an awesome strategy for online networking. Facebook is for my personal friends if I haven’t meet you in real-life I will not friend you on Facebook. Google Plus is not a service that I use much it just doesn’t appeal to me.

I went and joined ID professional organizations. Now it was time to start looking for work, so the first thing I did was sign up on UpWork and started bidding jobs. Then I wrote a new resume and cover letter and started updating my profile on Monster, Indeed, Glassdoor, and at the professional organizations. Pro Tip: make up a throwaway professional email to avoid spam in your inbox the rest of your life from job searching.

At this point it is January I’ve been a busy bee and now I’m applying to every instructional design job that I see on the internet within my area. If I was able and willing to move I am confident that I could have applied to many more jobs and landed one sooner.

By the end of January 2018 I had been freelancing for one year doing various projects for a wide range of businesses in various industries. These started as me offering my services for free; through word of mouth and providing good services I was now making between 30-50 an hour on these projects. I had also landed a gig on UpWork; this tactic to gaining experience was providing me with a sporadic part-time employment that paid well, but more importantly provided me with experience.

I also signed up for the xAPI cohort and was actively involved in producing a storyline 3 project that sent and received data from learning records storage. I viewed this as an opportunity to learn and showcase my skills on my portfolio. The group I was in decided not to complete the project so I had to do it all myself, but this wasn’t a problem I just had to learn everything and that was really good professional development. The presentations were awesome and I learned a lot just from those.

Now recruiters were starting to contact me on a weekly basis. Currently, I get at least one recruiter contact per week, every week like clock work. I started interviewing and going for full time employment as an ID. This was weird because I would sometimes be asked by recruiters if I could lie on my resume and show more experience. Typical, employers are looking for two years or more experience; however, I refuse to lie. I also believe my advanced education gives me a leg-up on my competition in the workforce and makes up for only having one year worth of experience.

On Reddit someone was asking where they could get an internship and Keelworks was mentioned, so I applied. The website is quite old for an instructional design firm but I decided to accept the interview anyway. Then I was told they wanted me to pay them for the internship, and they also told me what a big favor it would of then to let me work there for a fee. I didn’t like any of this as it seems scammy, so I declined to move further along with the process.

After several interviews and still not landing a job I was getting discouraged, but I kept at it. I had made friends with several of the linkedin IDs that and every-time I applied for a job I asked them for a reference if they were connected someone at the company. I mean that’s what the platform is for. I have regular conversations through the chat messenger about ID projects and things or just make small talk with the IDs I have friended online.

One company I applied at asked me to build a storyline 2 project, which I did. They didn’t even show up to the first phone interview, this was very unprofessional. I attended the second phone interview only because my recruiter asked me to, and she had helped me out a lot. I asked them about why they didn’t show up to my first interview and was told they forgot. Then 2 questions in, tell us about yourself and how many years of experience with storyline do you have, they were ready to get me off the phone. I told them the truth that I only had about 6 months experience with Storyline 2 and they were looking for more like five. I started asking them questions about their processes, and workflow. Basically, turned the interview around on them and used it to learn. I was bummed out because after building my SL2 project and getting some awesome feedback from my Reddit ID peers I thought for sure the job was mine for the taking. However, I choose not to lie and be honest about my experience with the software and that was the nail in my coffin.

In April one of my contacts on Linkedin posted in her news feed that she was looking for an ID for her team. I sent a direct message with my e-portfolio link and expressed my interest in the position. After having a conversation in messenger she asked me if I could come into the company headquarters for an interview. It fit like a puzzle, the job was exactly what I had been hunting for and I had the exact skill-set they were looking for. As the hiring managers expressed, “your theoretical knowledge and understanding of education has taken you years to achieve and this we cannot teach; however, we can teach you to use the tools.” They also expressed that my website proved to them I can use the tools and I had the knowledge they were looking for.

I was offered the job two days after my interview, and accepted it promptly. My contract is a temporary seven month position with the possibility of a full time position after the completion of the term depending on funding and company needs. The pay is excellent, but most importantly I am excited to be doing what I love all day every day. Recently, I started taking Linkedin Learning courses on various ID topics. These courses are valuable because even though I have a degree in Curriculum and Instruction the certificates provide explicit proof that I have an understanding of these specific topics. It also shows employers your willing to learn and engage in professional development on your own time. Within the free one month trial I have already completed 6 trainings.

If you are transition into ID from teaching I hope my experiences help you. My advice is to get a degree in Curriculum and Instructional design either a masters or specialist degree many colleges offer them. Market yourself like a business to the world and consider starting an LLC to freelance under. Start doing ID work for free, build an online presences, volunteer your ID services, network with other IDs online, research the profession relentlessly, start an ID blog, read books about ID, submerge yourself in ID, listen to ID podcasts, and etcetera. Grind every day! I worked a full time teaching job, coached football 6am-6pm, took my doctoral classes, hung out with my family, and then devoted my free time to making the transition from teacher to ID. It was a full-time process. Anything is possible if you want it bad enough, but you have to find away and execute.