[00:00:00] Kristin: So welcome everybody to Beyond the ID transition. We are super excited to have you here. I'm Kristin. I'm a bootcamp pro on Devlin's team. I'm a former teacher and I was able to successfully transition from teaching to ID. My first role was in a corporate ID role. And one thing that really helped me when I was making the transition is hearing from others.
[00:00:20] And so I'm super excited for all of you today to hear from others who have successfully transitioned. I'm a freelance instructional designer, and I'm here to talk to you about how to successfully transition because I know that there's a lot that you can take away from it. So speaking of one of those people who have successfully transitioned here is Sabrina.
[00:00:33] Sabrina: Hello, I'm Sabrina, another one of the bootcamp pros on the team, and like Kristin, a former teacher, transitioned to instructional design. I'm a freelance instructional designer, and it always amazes me how different life is, and I think we're going to hear a lot of that, too, from the people that we speak to today, all of our wonderful panelists.
[00:00:52] Thank you.
[00:00:53] Kristin: Thank you, Sabrina. Okay, so now the really exciting part. Today, Sean Anderson, Lucy Aguilar, and Jackie [00:01:00] Flavio are going to join us to tell you about their transition to instructional design, and then they're going to be able to answer your questions about how to succeed on the job.
[00:01:07] So with that being said, let's get started.
[00:01:10] Okay, you, shall we get started with Jackie?
[00:01:16] Jackie: Sure, thank you. Happy to be here, everyone. So I also was a teacher. I was a high school art teacher and I transitioned into ID very quickly. I was like, 8 months pregnant and I was like, "I'm gonna. Change my life and do something different."
[00:01:32] And so in I don't know, it's crazy when I think about it now, but four or five months, I just started Devlin's program and then, just went through it really quickly and developed my project and portfolio website, and then just started applying to everything I possibly could and then found my current job, where I'm currently an associate instructional designer with ELB Learning and I'm loving it.
[00:01:59] It's been great. Yeah.[00:02:00]
[00:02:04] Kristin: Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing. Lucy.
[00:02:10] Lucy: Hi, everyone. It's nice being here. And yeah, I was a teacher for 15 years. I taught Spanish. Previously that I was, I actually did some work on a television station, and then I went to teaching and now I am a ... I successfully transitioned to Instructional Design.
[00:02:29] I started looking for jobs when I was tired of teaching, I started looking for jobs and I was looking for remote jobs because I have a kid and as I saw this instructional designer and I started reading and I was like, "wait a minute, I already do all those things." So why not? And so then I started I first I started doing it by myself, but turns out that I'm not like very good at it.
[00:02:52] So I just joined the bootcamp because I needed experience. some structure I needed to learn from mentors. And I [00:03:00] was in a good place. And right now I work for Florida Blue or Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. And I'm an instructional system designer. That's my title. And it's it's been really nice.
[00:03:14] It's like totally different, but I'm enjoying every moment of it.
[00:03:18] Kristin: Thank you so much. It's always exciting to hear how everyone came into their ID role. So thank you so much for sharing. Okay, Sean.
[00:03:27] Sean: Hi everyone. Yes. So my name is Sean. Before I was an instructional designer, like others here, I was a high school teacher. So I taught ninth grade English and some electives.
[00:03:36] Before that, I actually have a background in psychology and mental health counseling, which is where I got a lot of the human systems and kind of behavioral theory and adult learning concepts from school. But like others who probably are feeling similarly in their roles: overworked, a lot of hours.
[00:03:51] I also had like just a really long commute and so I started looking elsewhere, like looking, what are some alternatives, what can I be doing? And I was fortunate enough that I actually go way back with Devlin to [00:04:00] college and we work together and we're roommates together. And I was just sharing some of my concerns and struggles and they were like, "you know that.
[00:04:06] This is what I do, right? Like instructional design is something that's like an excellent pivot and has so many transferable skills for former educators" and that he personally seen and witnessed this is, several years ago the, the transition of so many and how others are attempting this.
[00:04:19] And so I figured like that might be worth a shot. It combined so many of my interests and skill sets and also, the promise of higher earning potential and more flexibility and better work life balance. I was like, "check, check, check." And I went for it. And so I actually ended up leaving my position midway through the school year because I just couldn't, it wasn't tenable any longer.
[00:04:38] So after winter break, I I actually went, got married, went on honeymoon, and then came back and just jumped straight into it full time. And so I started like at the, about two year it's been over two years now, but at the end of January 2022, and what Jackie shared I really tried making it as fast of a turnaround as possible and so starting late January it took about a couple months for me to finish the bootcamp.
[00:04:59] And so I was [00:05:00] applying to jobs by the end of March and working through all of the excellent resources that are available for creating websites and job interviewing and pouring through all these videos and attending things just like this. So this is just such an awesome opportunity to be on this side of it and being able to share my experiences.
[00:05:15] So right now I'm a full time instructional designer with a company called PowerSchool. Some of you may be familiar with that if you've used it in your own classrooms. We are an EdTech company and so we develop software and cloud based solutions for school districts. And so I work on the curriculum team where we design training materials to help educators and districts learn how to implement these solutions.
[00:05:35] But my role's a little bit weird, and maybe we'll get into it, in that we do on site training. So we do conferences that are held around the country and now globally. Because we have an event in Dubai in a few months and so we help support the trainers who are delivering these materials.
[00:05:49] And so that means that the resources I create may take a different form than some of the things that you might be accustomed to. So hopefully maybe we can get into that too.
[00:05:59] Kristin: I love that. Thank you [00:06:00] so much for sharing, Sean. So cool to see all of your different journeys and where all of your first ID roles were. That's super exciting.
[00:06:08] So thank you for sharing.
[00:06:13] Sabrina: Yeah, it's really fun like hearing your stories and I think so many teachers can relate to a lot of the things you're saying of like why you look for something different. It's never like to leave that like you still have that passion for education and learning and teaching. So finding another route for that.
[00:06:26] And ID is like a great path for sure. Yeah, let's go ahead and start with the first one we have from Patricia. As a successful instructional designer who has transitioned smoothly into the role, what do you believe are the key characteristics that contribute to an instructional designer's success in their first six months on the job?
[00:06:45] Sean: I can share something of, a willingness to just soak up as much as possible, at least when you're jumping into a new You know, what's technically a new career field, even though a big part of this is just how many of our skills are transferable and do apply to instructional design [00:07:00] and are still effective and you'll have a portfolio.
[00:07:02] So you've learned a lot of the technical skills, but even then, depending on the role, sometimes there's new, even languages or interactions to learn, especially if, I know some people have posted about freelance and stuff, but if you go into a corporate role, There's going to be a lot of differences, right?
[00:07:15] Like it was different for me going from a staff of maybe 100 teachers to several thousand employees in different departments and teams to be able to connect and collaborate with. And I'm sure someone like Kristin can also offer insights into that, right? And so for me in that part of it, if you are in a position like that, it's having a team around you that you can ask questions and not be afraid to discover what are some of the etiquette pieces, how can I better manage how I interact with other teams, how I can be a better cross functional player and being able to Just even learn like the acronyms.
[00:07:47] I know it sounds silly, but this is things that get in the way of workflow and productivity. And having open lines of communication and not being afraid to, " what's the proper way for me to reach out to this person? Is it, okay for me to reach out directly to a manager? Should I be reaching [00:08:00] out to someone below them first?"
[00:08:01] These are some things that like process wise and productivity wise can mean a lot of success if you are willing to learn that language, learn how to best socially interact with people because when you get into these environments, a lot of your success depends on how you're representing yourself and the impression that people are getting from you because you never know down the line when you're going to need to reach back out to that person or that connection for assistance or help on a project.
[00:08:27] Kristin: Anyone else want to chime in on that one before we move to another question?
[00:08:31] Lucy: Yeah, same thing. I think being, humble and humility, that's the biggest part because you're learning it's a new, it's, if you're new to corporate, everything is new. If you're new to remote, everything is new. And the good thing about this your teammates, your co workers, is that they're also learners and former teachers, and they understand some of sometimes you have to let them guide you through whatever you're going your project, whatever you're working on.
[00:08:57] But also, don't be afraid to show [00:09:00] what you know. If you're good at Photoshop, or if you're good at Storyline you can always, don't be afraid to let them know, hey, I know how to do this, or I know how to do that. And that will that will also, take you a long way.
[00:09:13] Jackie: I would
[00:09:14] kind of echo what everyone just said there as well that try to breathe a little and not get too overwhelmed. I remember my first week I was like losing my mind a little bit because it was so much new stuff and I was just like, "What's an SST? What's an ILT? What does any of this mean?" "how do I even write narration?"
[00:09:33] There was so much that went into it that I knew my company has their own Way of doing it, and it's very specific and, just how we were structured was new for me as an ID and my company, we separate instructional design from development. They're like 2 separate worlds and sometimes there's crossover, but that was really different, because I had spent a lot of time.
[00:09:57] He personally learning how to, to, work with [00:10:00] triggers and conditions and, learning like the development side when really my position became much more about figuring out what they're learning and writing and designing the learning and not really at all about. Really making it function as a course.
[00:10:15] So it was like, that was like being open to, okay, "I got myself here. It's a little different than I was like anticipating it would be," but it actually turned out to be really great. So I would say, being open and also just being kind to yourself and not expecting, you're not going to be an expert right away.
[00:10:32] I'd say, it took, I'm now at my company for seven months. I started on September 6th. And. It's taken probably until the six month mark to feel like, "okay, I really know what I'm doing now." So just, be nice to yourself and trust that you'll get there.
[00:10:50] Kristin: Great advice from everyone.
[00:10:52] Great question and great answers. We are going to jump to the next question. Here is one [00:11:00] about subject matter experts. Do you work with subject matter experts and what's that like? I know it's going to be different everywhere. So I'm curious to hear from all of you.
[00:11:10] Jackie: I can go ahead and jump into that actually, because I just had a subject matter expert meeting this morning.
[00:11:15] I meet with them pretty frequently and they're awesome. Actually, they're like little treasure boxes of knowledge because so much. It's you're thrown projects and tons of content and you have to turn it into a learning experience and it's overwhelming. It's really, it can be really a lot to weed through and understand what there you're even trying to have the learner to learn and do.
[00:11:42] And Having those subject matter expert meetings, those SME meetings, were I think a little, a little kind of intimidating in the beginning, but very quickly you realize okay, this is actually, these are the people that are going to help me and make sense of all of this information [00:12:00] and help me guide and what I need to do.
[00:12:02] So really great.
[00:12:04] Sean: I'll just add that in my role. The way that I interact with subject matter experts is that since we support primarily instructor led training our trainers are some of our key subject matter experts. And so not only because they have the in depth product knowledge and experience to share some of the insights about what's new in the product and how it's actually impacting and affecting School Districts, but also because they're in the, they're in the training session, they're in the course, right?
[00:12:28] Actually interacting with our customers who are the educators, right? Oftentimes, like district administrators system administrators, even teachers, principals, those kinds of roles, right? And so since they have that frontline contact with who is ultimately the final person experiencing the content that we create the curriculum that we create.
[00:12:46] They have firsthand knowledge as to how things are landing what people are looking for, right? And so that is as you mentioned, like a, just a giant treasure box, right? Of content of information that we can use because in my role, I don't have that direct contact with [00:13:00] that user group, right? And so yet everything I do is informed by what's best for that user.
[00:13:04] So it's learning how to appropriately develop your relationships with the subject matter experts so that you can rely upon them to give you honest feedback. And then also Knowing, especially in, and I apologize, everything I'm going to say is about the corporate lens, right? Because that's where I work, but also knowing when you can tap into those resources because they have their own responsibilities.
[00:13:22] They have their own management. They have their own teams and project deadlines. And so they can't honestly be answering questions from you all day, every day. So you have to work through the proper channels and kind of determine, all right, do I have enough things to actually come to them and have a productive session of their time?
[00:13:35] Because their time is just as valuable as your own.
[00:13:38] Lucy: As for me, my subject matter experts are, um, they were at one point sales agents, the sales part of Medicare, and it's just, our trainings are very story driven and when I hear their trainings and I mean their stories and how they interacted with this person or this person, and some of them are success [00:14:00] stories, some of them are not, but just listening to their stories and how they managed to, to be success, successful in the field.
[00:14:07] That's that's pretty fun. And as well seen us putting all these compliance pieces and all these things that they have to go through. It's fun just to listen to their stories and just like at first I was a little intimidated but then I just noticed that they were people and like you And they're like, they're always willing to help you.
[00:14:29] And once they go through the the script or the training that you're going through, they're like, really excited to see that their words, all put together. And they're like, "oh yeah, that's my story. Or, oh yeah, that's my, that's what I said." And yeah, I do work very close with the subject matter experts.
[00:14:47] Yeah we work a lot. We like have meetings every week. Yeah it's really nice to work with them.
[00:14:53] Sabrina: Nice. That's all really, I think, really great to hear, because I think when you are starting and you have to hear that you're going to meet with subject matter experts, that is intimidating.
[00:14:59] [00:15:00] And then to hear that, yeah, that they're excited and eager to help you as well, because, Yeah, they're ready to share their expertise. Nice. Thank you all for sharing that. Our next question comes from Lisa, says the ID job market feels really oversaturated right now. What are ways to help our resumes and portfolio stand out?
[00:15:18] Lucy: If I may, your portfolio is going to be very important. As for me, when I was, I had this job, a recruiter contacted me. He said you have this quality and I need you. You are a really good fit for this job. And when I was when I was in the interview, they my portfolio came up and then they say Hey, I love your portfolio.
[00:15:47] I love your games. I love your simulations. And Oh, Hey, it looks very Devlin Devlin Peck. Do you follow him? And I was like, Oh yeah, I took the bootcamp. And then they're like, Oh yeah, I can [00:16:00] tell. And they were very excited. I'm so excited to hear from someone who took the bootcamp. And I think that one of the parts that really made me, set me apart from the rest of them was the portfolio.
[00:16:13] And of course The resume, I yeah, you can plug in all the all the keywords that you want to plug in, but at the end of the day, your portfolio and your expertise and talking the talk and knowing that's what's going to get you into set your foot in the door.
[00:16:30] Sean: I'll say that
[00:16:30] I know that market conditions right now are very different, right? So I can only attest to what I experienced a couple of years ago. But I think it's absolutely correct that your portfolio is already going to make a massive difference in standing out amongst a lot of people. You have to remember that just because hundreds of people are applying, that doesn't necessarily mean hundreds of people have also put in all of the same amount of work that you've done to develop your portfolio, to attend webinars like this, to learn the language, to hear people's experiences, right?
[00:16:55] And so it's easy to see these numbers and have that cloud your judgment of thinking oh, everyone else must be doing [00:17:00] the exact same thing. But. It's actually not true, right? And not everyone's actually finishing and getting to the point where they're actually applying and have all of these materials.
[00:17:07] So I think it's also just having some self confidence. You can't really change as hard as it is sometimes, right? But you can't really change what's happening around you, but you can only influence the things that you have direct control over. And so attending webinars like this and continuing to tinker with your website and continuing to develop your portfolio and your skillset is all within your control and is going to be only positive for you.
[00:17:27] And not only that, but just striking up the right conversations and continuing to reach out to others for just either guidance or their thoughts and opinions. I get to interact with a lot of people on LinkedIn through messages or even just phone calls and zoom chats and coffee chats.
[00:17:39] And I love doing that because I did the exact same thing. And those, you never know where they're going to lead. Sometimes they don't, the person you're interacting with can't offer anything outside of just their own experiences and guidance and assistance. But you never know what that conversation they'll think about you.
[00:17:53] Oh, wait a minute. There's a position that's open or you do actually cross paths with somebody who is in a position to hire. So just that having that [00:18:00] personability and looking for those conversations is also a key thing that can differentiate yourself.
[00:18:06] Jackie: I think that was really well said. I would also say a similar thing as well, just when you're choosing your project, think of something that's relatable, but also interesting, try to go about it creatively.
[00:18:15] Having your website feel very organized and clean, your portfolio website, not overly busy, something that looks professional. It doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles. I think it just needs to like at the point across, um, for me, I feel like that really made a difference. And also, yes, I would absolutely second that, even though you see those numbers super high, I think that's really It's misleading because so many of them are not submitting portfolios.
[00:18:43] They're just like, "Oh, I was a teacher. Here's my resume." And they think that's enough and it's really and it's not most of the time almost always, you know So I wouldn't let that be a discouragement, but just apply, you know I think I applied to almost 40 positions and I got two interviews out of all of those [00:19:00] applications.
[00:19:00] And obviously the one turned into my position now, so that was great, but it took just like getting them out there and just going for it, and eventually you'll find your place.
[00:19:11] Kristin: Love that awesome advice from all of you. Love hearing all of that and really great input.
[00:19:17] So the next question we have is how do you know what good versus great looks like? Since this type of work is new for me, I don't have a benchmark. So I get nervous if I'm doing a good job or not. I think this one can be really relatable because it can be really easy to work with. Want to go above and beyond and great can look different for a lot of different people and what company expectations are.
[00:19:38] Yeah, it's a really great question. I
[00:19:41] Sean: think if we're talking specifically about the portfolio or the work you're doing to try to land a job, right? You're always going to be your greatest kind of critic, right? And you're going to know this as in depth as possible, because you're the one who's in it all day working on it.
[00:19:53] So you know where the flaws are, where the seams are, right? But as like Jackie just mentioned, right? Like sometimes it's more [00:20:00] effective to actually just have something out there, right? And to have different things out there, because Unfortunately, like what you are creating as your portfolio, as nice as it is really just to show how you could take someone else's content and do something with it, right?
[00:20:13] It's really just a vehicle for showing them the skills that you've developed. The person that might be hiring you has their own set of things that needs to be turned into an instructional design experience or a learning experience and their own type of content. So it doesn't necessarily always a hundred percent matter.
[00:20:27] The content in the sense of it needs to be 100 percent perfect, but it's more so can you show that you can transform these questions into an experience, that you can transform these learning objectives into an experience. And so sure the visuals are impactful and leave an impression, but it means that it doesn't necessarily need to be 100 percent perfect.
[00:20:44] Perfect. And having different types of experiences sometimes may even far more outweigh just one super, super perfect type of experience, right? You can show I can also create like a job material or a job aid, right? And I can also Use these kind of mentor characters, even if maybe it's not necessarily [00:21:00] as perfectly flawless as you might want.
[00:21:02] And I think you'll surpRise yourself. Like you mentioned that because you're your own creative, like it probably just actually does look really great just to the person who's going through these materials and hiring. And it's really just meant to get you in the door and show what you can do with what they have for you.
[00:21:17] Sabrina: Nice. Yeah. Great. Great answers. And I think this next one is really, it leads into that. So we have like how we can stand out on our portfolios and then how has that translated or like the things you have on your portfolios. Are those similar to projects you're working on now? So what kinds of projects are you working on?
[00:21:35] Jackie: I can go ahead and jump in. So my company works with various other companies. So we work with Amazon or actually right now we're working with Blue Cross Blue Shield. And we've worked with Lululemon and just like all kinds of different, corporate companies like that. And then we create training for them.
[00:21:54] So I guess my, my, My projects are usually always storyline [00:22:00] based. Sometimes they're also Rise as well. Articulate Rise. And then sometimes I will do like instructor led PowerPoints as well. But it's a variety, for sure. Definitely a large array. But I would say, typically, it's Storyline. Every now and then I just got off this project that was all content writing.
[00:22:20] And that's not quite as fun, I will be honest. That's a little more on the dry side than doing Storyline interactions, which become super fun once you get, used to them and good at them. But, it was still a different experience and something I really gained a lot of experience from learning and really helped me learn how to connect with SMEs really well, because that was a lot of really dense content.
[00:22:42] But yeah, so that, that's what my projects typically look like.
[00:22:47] Lucy: For us, we do a lot of storyline. And yeah, we we finished a computer based training about compliance, and it's everything that's on Storyline, because compliance is like really but but it's [00:23:00] it's it's.
[00:23:00] You do it at your own pace, and after that, now we're working on on another piece, and this is more of a VILT, and we had one done, and now we're working on another one, and I work with a team of six, so right now, some of them are working on updates, and some of us are working on other deliverables that we need to to do, but mainly for us, it's a lot of CVTs, and I have a have that on my portfolio and then VILTs and a lot of job aides, like job aides here everywhere.
[00:23:33] Yeah.
[00:23:35] Sean: So in my role, we do actually a lot more work with Rise. And so part of the reason for that is the ability for future maintenance and to be able to replicate things. And also because we have a very Not stringent, but we have over the course of several years have developed a very in depth templating style and kind of style guide, and that's something to could also be, like, a discussion point, too, about style guides and templates and working within certain kind of rules that have been set [00:24:00] up by, by your team and department, and so because of that, we develop a lot and as I mentioned previously, that most of the training that I directly support is delivered through xAPI.
[00:24:08] through a trainer, right? And so that's going to be presentations is what they're typically using, but more often than not, they're actually in the product. And so what I do create is a supplement kind of e learning equivalent to the course that customers are, those who attend our conferences or training conferences can access at home on their own when they leave the conference.
[00:24:25] And so it's meant to have a lot of the same, content as well as activity steps, as well as images and interactions and stuff. But. Ultimately because we are supporting over a hundred different courses that get updated almost every other month just because of product releases and feature updates, like the amount of time that we are in kind of update phases means that it has to be pretty fast paced in order to be able to get these updates out there.
[00:24:49] And so on our team we can't do a lot of Storyline just because the update are the updates are coming so frequently that it's going to start bogging us down a little bit and that's just like it's decisions that have been made, in the past, [00:25:00] but there is an alternate, like a, an equivalent to my team that is also in the same department that does create on demand training and they experiment and use a lot of storyline and they use like video training and, tons of different resources like beyond, right?
[00:25:11] And so it just depends, right? Ultimately where your role ends, but I just want to share that ours is Slightly different where we just do a ton of like Rise work and a lot of presentations and a lot of supplements for trainers.
[00:25:22] Kristin: Thank you all so much for sharing. It's so true that no ID roles are exactly the same and so it's really cool to hear what you're working on and how different it is but also you know there's some similarities at the same time and what You choose to focus on, but the deliverables are different.
[00:25:36] So thank you so much. So this next question is, about being successful, but also to be part or to be successful, you have to land that job. And so this is a really good question about interviewing. So what do you consider the top three most important questions to prepare for in an interview?
[00:25:53] And if you don't have three, that's okay. If we have one from each of you are really important one for each of you, but what's important to be able to [00:26:00] prepare for that interview successfully.
[00:26:02]
[00:26:02] Lucy: I
[00:26:02] think there's like this thing called the imposter syndrome. You have to get rid of that because when you step into the interview, you're an instructional designer and act as an instructional designer.
[00:26:15] So that was one of the things that helped me. One of the, another thing that I was, I get nervous when I talk like public speaking. This is like a lot to me. I'm like, I'm shaking. You can't see it, but I'm shaking. And And you have to get rid of that. And one of, one person told me, a coach told me, you have to say, I'm nervous in the interview.
[00:26:34] Cause you're gonna, if this is your first interview as an instructional designer, of course, that's something that you you haven't experienced before. And so you have to say, I'm sorry, I'm nervous. And just by saying, I'm sorry, I'm nervous. Your nervous, nervousness goes away and it's magical.
[00:26:50] It works. And another question, um, I think the top important questions are working with SMEs knowing your [00:27:00] tools, because that was one of the things, they told, they asked me this question so have you ever worked with PowerPoint, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and can you give us an example?
[00:27:09] And I was like, yeah. Yes, so know your tools and also be ready to defend every part of your resume. You have to have a story or you have to, not make it up, you have to back up everything that you have on your resume because they're gonna go, sometimes they just and then, oh yeah, you, it's your resume says that you have experience doing this.
[00:27:30] You're ready to respond to that.
[00:27:34] Sean: I know that one question I received that I also have seen now being in the role, why it's so important is how you handle criticism and how you handle feedback. Particularly because at least when I was a teacher, like you're like a one man per show, right?
[00:27:47] Like you're, you are in charge of everything from the beginning to the end of how things run in your classroom. I know there's exceptions and stuff like that, right? But usually. Whatever you decide is going to be on the lesson plan, like you can make happen, right? However, things are going to function timing wise, [00:28:00] how things look, even down to the actual copy that's written on papers, right?
[00:28:03] It's up to you, and it doesn't need to be run past a lot of people in some cases. And so when I go into this role, though, it's different. We have, like a process where anything that I create goes through a QA process to make sure that there are like things are actually factual and correct, right?
[00:28:17] And it goes through an editing process with an editor to make sure that it aligns with the style guides that we have created, right? And so you're going to be constantly, at least in my role, receiving feedback on things that you probably thought were fine or good as is, right? And so Experiencing that and knowing that it's for the benefit of the final product, it's for the benefit of yourself as a person, and it's for the benefit of yourself as a professional, and ultimately the person who's going to be enjoying that experience is benefiting the most from all of these different revision steps and iterative steps, but knowing that there's going to be backtracking, knowing that there's going to be things that aren't perfect on the first try and that it's not some kind of a front against you or anything, at least for me, is was one of the important questions in the interview process of how I would handle that [00:29:00] and my beliefs surrounding that really stood out at least I know in terms of with my interviewers and the last thing I'll also add is that I also find it just as important to have your own questions prepared for the interviewer and what you can glean from those questions that you have and I know there's tons of resources on that but I would also put that in there as something that will really make you stand out and to have that prepared just as much as you are prepared for the questions that they're going to ask you.
[00:29:24] Sabrina: Yeah, really great point. It's not just an interview of you, you're also interviewing them too, right? Looking for that perfect fit for you as well. Great insights. So one of the things that makes instructional design appealing to a lot of people is that most of the opportunities are remote and that flexibility.
[00:29:41] Do all of you work from home and can you talk more about the flexibility of your ID position?
[00:29:46] Jackie: Yes, I do work from home. I, it seems we all do as we're sitting in our rooms in our homes. But yeah, no, it's been great. That was honestly 1 of the big motivating factors for me to become an ID. I, [00:30:00] felt like it made sense for me as a creative person, as an artist and as a teacher.
[00:30:05] It just made sense in my, for who I am, but also, I was about to have a baby for, in my personal story. So I was like, I want to leave teaching so I can be home with her. Granted, it was hard and I definitely eventually, had to have some help because, I needed time to actually work throughout the day.
[00:30:23] But overall, like that flexibility has been amazing. I have... I would say a decent amount of I can decide when I work, but for the most part, I do have a pretty steady workflow, like all day long, Monday through Friday. It's not like there are giant gaps of time where I'm just able to, Do whatever it is pretty like intensive, I will say, and I'm not trying to like, scare anyone by any means, but I felt I'd been teaching for almost 10 years.
[00:30:53] So that, to some degree became almost easy. And I think the hardest part of [00:31:00] teaching, at least for me, was showing up every single day and being there every single day. Whereas now I'd say the hardest part is just you're a producer of things, of products, of learning, and you're constantly producing things.
[00:31:14] And with my company, it's like such a fast turnaround. We have, we're expected to produce a lot very quickly. Now, not when I was like first starting out, I definitely had a really supportive team behind me that were like very. Very willing to help me and guide me and help me get there. And, I was obviously much slower the 1st, few months.
[00:31:34] But, yeah, that flexibility has been amazing for me and for my life. So I, definitely 1 of the biggest perks of the job. Absolutely.
[00:31:43] Sean: Yes, I also work fully remote and, one of the absolute massive advantages is of course like the small ways that you get time just back into your life and it's not even really a small way because if you think about the types of commutes that some may have like when I was working as a teacher I had an almost hour long commute there and an hour long commute back right so that's already [00:32:00] two hours ten hours a week that just have gotten redeposited back into my life and so but not only that just the time to get ready for your commute the time to prepare for your even just to take your lunch like all of these small things right really start adding up and just provide some Such an immense like mental relief.
[00:32:15] And just the ability to be able to do small side things, right? Fortunate enough that, in our job it's encouraged that it's okay, if you need to just go take a walk outside for just a little bit or let the dogs out or swap something out from the laundry, right? Like it's not necessarily considered, like as long as you're being responsible and a professional, like your judgment is trusted, right?
[00:32:31] Because ultimately at the end of the day, as long as your deliverables are being met and your work. Quality is not dropping. That's what at least my management team has instilled in us. And because they know all that stuff feeds into your happiness and your productivity levels and your ability to perform as an individual.
[00:32:45] And yeah, the flexibility has been just absolutely massive, but similarly, I also maintain a schedule just because that's the the structure schedule is the best way that works for me. And just having set hours, but really if I wanted to, it could be slightly different hours or adjusted in that kind of [00:33:00] way.
[00:33:00] And so it's just going to depend on the role, but ultimately like remote really is something that's greatly impacted and changed my life for the better.
[00:33:09] Lucy: Yes same. I have a kid, so I wanted to be home and I wanted to be around. She is five away, five minutes away from me. And if she needs anything, I can run.
[00:33:20] For my company, we do have a what we call, a And I have to be present and those during those hours, but there's always the flexibility. Hey, I need to do this. I need to go here. I need to go that. And as long as I, let my my lead. No, then I can just do it and then come back and flex my hours a little bit.
[00:33:43] But overall it's it's really nice to work from home. The two hours I work out sometimes, not every day, but I do. My coworkers, AKA my dogs, I know we meet all the day, the whole day. So sometimes I'm like I let them out and it's just. Fun. And sometimes one of them just [00:34:00] sits on my lap the whole day and then he leaves.
[00:34:01] So yeah, just spending time and being home and cooking for me was a big thing. I thought I was going to cook more, but I don't. And it just, it's nice to work from home. It's really nice.
[00:34:16] Kristin: Thank you all for sharing. I it's nice to hear about the flexibility you all have now and I've felt similar.
[00:34:21] I think it's really cool to be able to work from home. And now in terms of how you all successfully were able to transition into ID. Where did you find your position? So the Carrie says the usual job boards don't seem to work well. So how did you find that position? Or how'd you find your current position?
[00:34:38] Jackie: Mine was through a LinkedIn. I did find my position through there.
[00:34:42] Lucy: Yeah, for me recruiter call me he, yeah, he called me directly and he didn't send an email or anything. So I was, I thought it was a little fishy and then he sent all the, he sent the email and then I looked him up and, "oh, yeah, he's legit."
[00:34:58] So I went ahead and [00:35:00] I went ahead and applied. And that's how I got my but I think it was through Dice. I think.
[00:35:07] Sean: Yeah, my role I actually came across through Devlin Peck's community. So at the time it was on Slack, but I knew it's moved to a different community portal, but same thing where there was a channel that opportunities would get posted in.
[00:35:19] And so actually my current manager was someone who had posted an opportunity in that channel because he'd been involved in the community and seen all the things going on with the bootcamp. And yeah. I just applied to that link and I reached out to him as well, just starting that conversation piece and being like, "Hey, I applied to the position.
[00:35:34] Just want to learn a little bit more about it and yourself and the role and stuff." And it was the portfolio that, that really was the standout piece that was like, yeah, let's go ahead and just take this conversation further. But I also applied to places where I received interviews from LinkedIn as well as Indeed and as well as recruiters reaching out.
[00:35:52] So it seems like there isn't like a perfect kind of one size fits all and it really is just trying to spread out your opportunities as much as possible across [00:36:00] all places, right?
[00:36:01] Jackie: I wanted to add a little note to that, too, as well. I think sometimes it can help, I'm trying to think, it can help to find the positions on one of those job boards, and then go directly to their website and apply through there.
[00:36:18] I don't know. It might, maybe I'm, it's just my, be me being superstitious, but I did do that with my current position. I applied directly through their website on their job posting, but I had found it on LinkedIn. So I don't know, who knows, maybe they just check that more frequently. I'm not sure.
[00:36:36] Sabrina: Yeah great tips.
[00:36:37] And yeah, I think a lot of you, like Sean said, there's no like perfect way to find a job, but that the power of your network is also really beneficial. So letting people know hey, these are the kinds of jobs that I'm looking for. These are the skills I have, because then maybe they hear something from someone else and say oh, I know somebody and they can bring up your name.
[00:36:55] So even just using that power of your network is really. Another great way to find some of [00:37:00] those roles. Alright, this next one is a good one because I think we talked about this too, how everything is so new when you start on the job. So how did you get up to speed with the company practices and then how does this differ from what you learned in the bootcamp?
[00:37:14] I guess the process of the flagship, how's that different than what you're doing now those practices?
[00:37:19] Sean: I'll tie this one back to that interview question one too, because I think it's really important to try to find out about this during the interview process, right? Because everyone's, it's not going to be the same no matter where you go, and everyone's going to be completely different in how they approach it.
[00:37:32] But for me getting up to speed, I was fortunate enough that at my company, my team specifically, had a plan in place for bringing someone on board. And how learning It's in pieces of our overall kind of workflow process and assigning these smaller tasks first with a lot of guidance and kind of support.
[00:37:47] And I would first start by observing someone going through what they were trying to teach me. Then they would give me something small to work on my own, and then it would gradually kind of fall into place where I finally realized that I just learned these are just separate components that ultimately then become the [00:38:00] overall workflow that I would then be responsible for.
[00:38:02] But this was something I had asked about during my interview process and asked them what did the next, three months, the next six months look like as trying to bring me on board and up to speed? Were they expecting me to just immediately get started the first week and just jump right in, which when I asked a different place I was interviewing at was like their answer.
[00:38:18] And so to me, I didn't feel like I was in the position to take on that kind of responsibility since I hadn't been an instructional designer yet. Maybe in the future, that's something that could be different. But at this time, I knew that I needed more guidance and I needed more support early on. And so I was trying to make sure I clued into that and was asking for that.
[00:38:34] So I think it's going to depend, but you can probably get some of those insights if you're asking for them during your interview process.
[00:38:41] Jackie: Sean, I think that sounds great. I would absolutely agree with you during the interview asking. So if I am hired, if I get this position, what are my next? What are my first few weeks going to look like?
[00:38:53] That, first of all, makes it look like you're, really excited about it. You're really interested. You're on board. [00:39:00] You're, you want to be there, but also it does give you like, okay, what am I getting into? Because it is a little scary. And also I would say asking who your support system is going to be because really how you're going to learn is by asking questions because, often companies are busy, there's a lot going on and I'm not saying that they're not going to have a training.
[00:39:21] Designated for you. I did have that. I had I think, 2 or 3 weeks of doing solid PD and training before I was actually put on a real project. But, it really wasn't until I started doing the real projects that I really started to learn a lot. And, you're going to make mistakes.
[00:39:37] I remember the first storyboard I made was, it's horrendous. Just a little bit. It was a horrible, but it was really not to the standards of where I am today. And that's okay. People are there to help you. That's part of, you have this kind of like supportive workforce and team.
[00:39:53] Hopefully, I would assume most places, you can expect that that they're, if they want you there, they're They know where [00:40:00] you're coming from, especially if you're honest, honestly yeah, I've been I was a teacher. This is new for me, but I know I have a lot of transferable skills.
[00:40:07] I know I can do this. There will be a learning curve, but I'm excited and willing to learn, and, Most people are extremely receptive to that.
[00:40:16] Lucy: Yeah, same thing. The first few weeks were a lot of trainings and getting familiar with everybody, a lot of meetings and the 1st, my 1st assignment was QA but yeah, Quality Assurance.
[00:40:29] And I think I did that for about three days and it was just fun and it was a good way to step into the project and see what was going on. And after that, we did a lot of development in Spanish. And then after that, we started slowly like getting into other projects and bigger responsibilities and Yeah, so it's not like when you're teaching like your first day, you have to be ready because you have kids waiting for you at the door.
[00:40:57] This is like more transition is [00:41:00] easier.
[00:41:01] Kristin: Love that and thank you for all of you mentioned the trainings that you had initially because that was another question someone had as well is what types of training did you get? And so thank you for going into that and really good input.
[00:41:13] And so our next question is, what are some opportunities for IDs that love to write and create content courses, but aren't as strong as facilitators? Facilitation for ILT. So maybe in your current roles, what are some things that you see that might be a good fit for somebody that isn't necessarily looking for facilitation roles?
[00:41:32] Sean: That's a tough one for me because everything I create is for ILT. So I don't unfortunately have very many perspectives to offer for this. But I will try to think on some and apologize.
[00:41:45] Kristin: Totally fair.
[00:41:46] Jackie: I feel like it depends, where you get your position because in my current role, I don't really do a whole lot of instructor led training.
[00:41:53] I do sometimes like I just did one a few months back, but more often we're doing like self paced. [00:42:00] Learning Experience, Storyline Courses, or Articulate Rise Courses. I think it just depends, like, when you're doing your research on that particular company that you're going to be working for, just like, seeing what they do, their portfolio what kind of products do they have out there?
[00:42:13] What is their, what are they known for? And then that would I think, lead into what you think your role might be. It makes sense. I would say for you, Sean, your role working with PowerSchool, it makes sense to me why you would have a lot more, instructor led.
[00:42:29] Yeah, I think that's what I would say.
[00:42:30] Sean: Yeah, and also maybe depends too on where that question is coming from, right? If, do you have if that person has genuine experience and doing instructional and they know that they dislike that, or they know that they're not good at it. But if it's like a question your Thinking you may not be good at, or you're thinking you may not be a good fit, then it could be something that you may surpRise yourself with as well, and moving it to supports for it also, because there's a difference in sometimes what you assume it looks like, and what it's going to feel like versus actually trying that out too, right?
[00:42:55] Jackie: That's a very good point. Yeah, maybe don't put yourself in a box, just be open to whatever.
[00:42:59] Sean: And open to [00:43:00] people helping support and train you into that role.
[00:43:02] Jackie: Oh, yeah, for sure.
[00:43:04] Sean: If you're interested, but of course, if they're not, that's something I want to do, then of course.
[00:43:08] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:43:09] Kristin: that's really good input.
[00:43:10] And just to throw that into it there like we've all talked about, ID roles are so different. And a lot of times you also can be asked to just develop an ILT but not facilitate it. They'll have the subject matter experts sometimes facilitating. It really just depends on What you're doing, but there is a lot of variety.
[00:43:25] Most ID jobs aren't just training facilitation. There's a lot of different things involved, but great advice mentioned on it's really helpful to just start looking at job descriptions and see the different types of jobs that are out there. And if you're really not interested in facilitation, then you'd probably want to go a different route, but I think looking through job descriptions are going to be really helpful.
[00:43:43] Sabrina: Yeah, that was a good question because, yeah, the ID umbrella is so big, and so you can definitely find a spot where you are happy and where it's things that you are excited to do. We are coming up on the end of the hour, so I do just really want to thank our guests. Thank you, Shawn, Lucy, and Jackie for being with us [00:44:00] today and sharing all these really great insights and tips.
[00:44:02] Definitely something I wish I would have attended when I was looking to instructional design myself, because this really does ease those fears of Getting to hear from people who have done it and are there and are working. So thank you again for sharing those stories. Jackie, Lucy, and Sean all went through the bootcamp before landing their ID role that they're in now.
[00:44:18] And if you'd like to receive highly personalized feedback and guidance on the transition process to set you up for success on the job, just like they did feel free to apply today. We'd love to work with you in the bootcamp community. You'll be taken to the bootcamp page once this event ends and keep working on the transition.
[00:44:36] Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for more free content to help you through the process. And we'll see you all around. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you everyone.
[00:44:45] Jackie: Bye.
[00:44:47] Sabrina: Bye.
[00:44:47] Sean: Thank you.