Leaving the Classroom: A Transitioning Teacher Podcast

A Day in the Life of a Corporate Contract Instructional Designer with Gretchen Johanson

In this episode, I talk to Gretchen Johanson. Gretchen is a former teacher, guest faculty, and member of IDOL courses Academy. She now works as an instructional designer for Zillow. She discusses how she transitioned from teaching to her current role.

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Enjoy the podcast transcription:

Kristi Oliva
Welcome to leaving the classroom. This is a podcast for teachers who are ready to transition out of the classroom and into a new career. Each week, I'll share stories about what I've learned moving from education to the corporate world. I'll answer the most common questions and share my best tips to help you get started. If you are considering leaving the classroom, this show is for you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to leaving the classroom. I'm Kristi Oliva. I'm so glad you are here. Today's topic is a day in the life of a corporate instructional designer. And I have a special guest and very good friend of mine here to talk about it. Today I have with me, Gretchen Johansen, member and guest faculty of IDOL courses Academy and a corporate instructional designer. Welcome Gretchen.

Gretchen Johanson
Hello, thanks for having me, Kristi. I'm so excited to be here today.

Kristi Oliva
So glad you're here. This is gonna be fun. So, we've worked together so much over our ID experience. You were one of the first people I called maybe the first person I called when I got my very first ID job. So we just have such a history and have kind of seen IDOL courses Academy grow. But I really want you to take us through like your journey with IDOL. Like, when did you join? How did you get a job? What did that look like for you?

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, so I'll start from the very beginning, but I'll try to keep it brief because it, the resume keeps getting longer and longer. But so I was a teacher for a little over nine years. And in 2016, I'd had enough and decided to leave education and got lucky, a friend of mine had gotten a promotion and her role as a travel coordinator had become open. So this was my opportunity to leave education and get into the corporate world. So my first job had nothing to do with teaching or instructional design. I stayed in that job for about a year. And then I really missed all the things that I loved about teaching except for being in the classroom. And so I was really looking for something that fit my skill set as the teacher and that I could really just use my degree for and so I started looking and I stumbled upon instructional design. And I just started doing a lot of research with it, and started to try my hand at transitioning myself and I was able to get a little bit of a portfolio, it's looking at it now. It's comical. And I can go more into that later, but started getting a little portfolio, but it wasn't getting any traction. And, you know, just happened to be networking with other people. And I got my next job as a program manager with York Technical College. And that put me in charge of professional development for basically our local city. They would come to the college and ask for training for anything from Microsoft Office to SHRM to OSHA regulations and project management. And I was in charge of all of that. And I did my very first instructional design project and created the real estate curriculum for South Carolina to get your South Carolina real estate license at York Technical College. While I was doing that, I'm still really just wanting that title of instructional designer because I really wanted to only focus on creating the lessons, creating elearning, creating videos and stuff like that. So luckily, I had already been social media friends with Dr. Robin Sargent on all the platforms. I'd seen her and listened to some of her posts here and there. And I was just like, man, she's doing what I want to do. And I really admired her and all of her work. And then low and behold, she launches the IDOL courses Academy. And I was like, this is gonna be perfect, this will bridge that gap for me, because I've been spinning my wheels for the last three years trying to get into this field on my own and not really knowing what to do or who to talk to about it and all of that. So 2019 she launched IDOL courses Academy and I was a founding member I signed up right away. And once I got started on the curriculum, I had a job offer within I don't know, within like, a few weeks after starting the curriculum. I'd only gotten maybe through about three of the lessons and I really was strategic about the lessons that I chose to concentrate on. So I was really looking for that job. You know, the Academy it it helps you fill in those learning gaps from pedagogy to andragogy and everything that you need to know about doing learning and development in the corporate sector. It is slightly different than it is in the education sector. But your skills really do transfer to this corporate environment and I just needed to bridge that gap. And so IDOL was perfect for that. But I concentrated on, you know, my resume and branding myself on LinkedIn and getting my portfolio ready. So that portfolio I had made once I had learned about instructional design, it kind of went out the window because it was not what it should have been. And so IDOL helped me make a more professional instructional designer portfolio and helped me be able to present my work to my first job, which was Charter Communications, fortune 100 company, and I stayed there for almost a year and a half. And because of IDOL, like you just mentioned earlier, I met you network with other people. And because of our relationship and networking, you know, you really helped me get to my next careers milestone, which was contracting for Google. So I did that for a year.

Kristi Oliva
Were you already doing freelance work on the side at that point?

Gretchen Johanson
Oh, yeah, some? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I was doing some of that here and there. And so those were just like, regular myself to a direct client. And there was no middleman in between. So I left let me back up, I left Charter, which was a full time position with corporate America, and then doing some freelance stuff on the side, which is a direct contract between myself and the client that I had, or I had several. But that's the direct. And then with you, you introduced me to Mackin Talent, which was a third party contract firm, whose client was Google. And so we worked for Google in that capacity. So that's been my journey so far. And now I'm back to full time work and working for Zillow. So that was a long story.

Kristi Oliva
No, it's not. I mean, that's, I think it shows just the versatility of like, all the different kinds of roles that you can have as an ID. So before we talk about what a typical day looks like, in your current role, will you just talk about how you are landing those freelance roles. Because I wonder this all the time, I'm like, how does she get those? Because you, you get these contracts where you're like, okay, develop this many courses, or this many lessons for this company. And I think a lot of people would be interested in finding out how to land something like that.

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, there's lots of ways to go about it. I have been very fortunate, though, that they've kind of come to me in a sense. I think part of that is by way of the way my LinkedIn is set up, and my portfolio is set up. Both of them are geared towards being searchable on LinkedIn, coming up with those nice keywords about what I do. And then my portfolio website, also is a landing page for potential clients to see what it is I do. It's not just my work, it's the services that I offer, and how I can help them solve problems. So one, that's huge. So if you want to get into freelancing, I feel like you really gotta set your portfolio website up in that regard, but also to I've connected with several different Facebook groups, and LinkedIn groups of instructional designers. And so within those groups, people are always like, hey, I need help with this project. Can you help me here? Or somebody will always say, I know somebody that needs help on a project I'm unavailable is anybody else available? And so I really take those networking opportunities and jump on it. So I've done stuff through IDOL Talent pool, as well. You know, whenever those get posted in the Academy. I jump on them when I can. And then I've even subcontracted for some particular IDOLs in their own company. They've launched their own company and have been swamped with work and needed some support. So I've done sub contracting in that regard as well. But yeah, and I've been fortunate that there have been several IDOLs who posted blogs for the IDOL Academy and have linked portfolios from the Academy in those articles. And that helped me land one of my other contract roles was somebody happened to read that article, and they're like, hey, let me look at these portfolios, because I know we need help. And one of those readers reached out to me and I snagged that job as well. So I mean, I hate to say, it's been a little bit of luck for me, because I know some people really grind at building those relationships and keeping those relationships with potential clients and trying to keep that pipeline full. But since it wasn't full time for me, I had the freedom to say yes and no to some of those things. But I think really networking and using that network to your advantage is the biggest help in landing those contracts and at least getting your foot in the door to start a relationship with other businesses.

Kristi Oliva
Yeah. Which one is your favorite type of role? Did you like the contract role? Do you like freelancing? Like if you could pick one to focus on and it would make you as much money as possible, like, what do you like the best?

Gretchen Johanson
Oh, gosh, I like the freedom of the freelance role. I really do because it is just me and the client. And I get to tell them my timeline. And, you know, if, if life gets in the way, I don't have like meetings that I'm stuck to other than, you know, those one or two meetings a week with that direct client. And I can work at any time of the day or night that fits my schedule. So I really do love freelance work for that. And if I need to be off during the week, I can be off during the week and not worry about it. And I can make that time up on the weekend if I want. You know, as long as I'm keeping my projects managed, and on time, it's never an issue. I do like the freedom but what scares me about it is having to keep that pipeline full and making it your full time job because then it really does become a grind. I feel like to really keep that pipeline full.

Kristi Oliva
I know, that seems stressful to me to always be like, okay, I gotta make sure I got enough in my pocket. That's a lot. But I don't know people love that, I guess.

Gretchen Johanson
I know. And I think they're so brave. That's why I keep a full time job now. So when I do it on the side, it's fun. But now the caveat to is now you've got a full time job, and are you able to fit those big projects in that you really want. And so I think I struggle with that now because I'm kind of at the point where like, man, I would love to watch my own business. But at the same time, it's really scary. And I'm really happy where I'm at right now. I love working for Zillow and everything about it. So I'm comfortable right now. Working on those side projects here, and there are that's fun for me. You know, people always ask me like, what's your hobby? Like? What do you do in your spare time? And I feel like such a nerd. Yeah, I feel like such a nerd because I'm like, I play with the industry board. Or if I might have a project, I'm working on the side, I truly, truly love it. And that's one of the great things I love about this career. Because, you know, I was in third grade when I knew I was going to be teacher, like straight up going to be a teacher. You couldn't tell me anything else. And I never thought that I would love anything as much as I loved teaching. And I think I love this more. I really do. So it's been it's been such a blessing to be able to transition into this career and be successful in this career and love what I do, love my company, love my team, love the people I've networked with.

Kristi Oliva
I'm so happy for you. So let's go into maybe what your typical tasks look like in your current corporate job, like, how many meetings do you have? I know there's no typical day but if you had to explain to somebody what you do day in, day out, what would that look like?

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, so the big thing is, every day is different. And in corporate, you're going to have multiple projects going on at the same time. The same is true for your contract work, whether it's through a third party vendor or freelancing. Because if you're successful with the freelancing, you should have multiple projects going on at the same time. And so project management is number one skill. And my typical day would, I mean, this is how I start every morning, I go, and I check my Asana board, which is my project management tool. And I'm looking at where am I in all of my projects, what tasks need to be done for that day, and then I start prioritizing by the milestone deadlines, like what's coming up most urgently that I've got to get done, and then work from there. So I'm looking at those projects, and I start work. So you know, I may devote several hours to development on a project, which is creating that eLearning or that video, or whatever. And then another several hours to a different stage of another project, like the analysis like a meeting with the stakeholders and stuff. So every day is going to be different in that capacity of how much time I'm devoting to this project or the other project, and what stage I'm in. So I could be in analysis stage with one development, another design and another. And so it just all depends, but if I've got multiples going on, and all those milestones have pretty much the same date, which has happened before and it gets very stressful, then I've got to make sure that I split my day up equally to work on all of those things equally during that day. If I get lucky and some deadlines are a little further out, then I might devote a whole day to just development on one project. And that will get me ahead so that I can relax and focus on other ones. But there's also standing meetings every week with my team, my direct team and then a standing meeting like monthly sometimes with my greater learning and development team. And then there's always status update meetings every week with all the project teams that I'm part of, and doing those projects for. So hope that answers the question.

Kristi Oliva
No, it does. I mean, it's a lot. But at the same time, I love that it's diverse. And I think that is something that teachers can relate to is that every day is different, even though it's similar, right? I mean, I feel like that's how teaching days are like, you know, what to expect as far as like, what the day, the cadence of the day, but like, you never know what's going to come up during the day. Yeah, on that note, can you pick, what three skills do you think you brought with you as a teacher that have served you best in your roles in corporate?

Gretchen Johanson
Okay, that's a great question! I'll just hit the first couple out of the park right now, creating lessons, which is the organization of content. I think that's one skill that corporate America doesn't understand about teachers. You know, if you ever talk to people in learning and development that have never been a teacher, or don't have a relationship with a former teacher that is now in the industry. I think that I'll just say it, it's a blanket statement that they have no idea what our skill set is and what we can do. And they're hard to convince, because I think in their mind, we're just babysitters, and we're only teaching children and nothing transfers.

Kristi Oliva
Until they've seen it, until they've seen it. Yeah.

Gretchen Johanson
Building lessons in general, because that is what we do every single day is create lesson plans. We create curriculums every year throughout the year for each of the units that we're teaching. So we are constantly designing instruction, constantly. And getting it critiqued and making sure that it aligns with those standards that each state puts in place, which is equivalent to making sure that corporate America learning and development is aligned with the objectives, right, and those business goals. So all of those skills transfer. So that's number one. Number two, I think would be flexibility, really, because at any given time, during a school day, things change. Your students come in and a different kind of mood and you've got a pivot or a fire drill happens, you've got to pivot. Oh, something else is planned, we've got a pivot, right? And so the same thing happens in corporate America, hey, you know, our stakeholders want the project, you know, in three months from now, well, all of a sudden, this meeting says, nope, we moved it up. So we really needed in two months, what can you do for us, right? And so just being able to pivot like that, or there's an urgent need, all of a sudden, I've been working on a project, you know, that it's due date is coming up, and all of a sudden, the CEO is wanting a new project. And I've only got days to like, get this out, because it has slipped through the cracks on the business end, and oh, boy, but we've got to make it happen, because it's going to have high visibility. So being able to flex in that way is a strong skill set to have, and that we as teachers will bring to that environment. And, you know, I think typically, most teachers are able to pivot like that without much stress, you know, whereas other people who don't really like change or like they might get a little more stressed out or a little more frazzled than others. And then the third one, I'm very proud of this one, is our creativity and ingenuity, because as teachers, most teachers don't have all of the things that they need to make the lessons happen.

Kristi Oliva
Amen.

Gretchen Johanson
Specifically for me, you know, I taught ancient civilizations for sixth grade, right, and my team of teachers, we were the first to pilot technology in the classroom with one to one iPads, right. And so while the the math teachers and the English teachers, they had all these fun little apps to put on their iPads and stuff, you know, and incorporate the technology into their classroom. I didn't have that luxury. There weren't any apps for social studies, especially like ancient civilizations. But what am I doing? I'm trying to figure out how I can take these apps that we have, and incorporate them. So I'm turning Pic Collage into graphic organizers, you know, and doing QR code, like searches or scavenger hunts and stuff, you know, through these ancient civilizations so I had to get really creative with these lessons and bring this technology into the classroom. And I have brought that skill into corporate America and getting creative with the kinds of lessons that I'm teaching or the themes around curriculum that I'm bringing. With charter I did a whole new hire program called Charter's Amazing Race, right. We themed it around the Amazing Race theme, and created this wonderful new hire training for one of the lines of business at charter and I like to say I'm quite proud of it. It was my first victory.

Kristi Oliva
Yeah, I bet nobody else would have thought of that. But that connects to like what you would have thought of as a teacher to do.

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, they had all the game elements too. Now there was some convincing of the, of the business how this is going to work. Because, you know, this was one of the first time that we were doing something like this at Charter too. So I felt like I was pitching the same idea every single time we came to the stakeholders or other leadership within the learning and development team, but we finally got it and it came out and it had been very successful. And since I've left, I still hear that they're still using it, and it was, you know, I hope I'm not wrong.

Kristi Oliva
Well, I bet a lot of people are gonna want to get in touch with you after hearing your story and how you've been in so many different sectors and you know so much about the field and how to network so I bet you people are gonna want to network with you. So what's the best way for them to do that? And find you?

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, LinkedIn. Absolutely. LinkedIn. So just find me on LinkedIn, Gretchen Johansen All right. And, you know, send me a connection. So I'll be happy to connect with anyone that wants.

Kristi Oliva
Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us. Gretchen. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I think it's gonna encourage a lot of teachers who are frustrated right now, which there's a lot of them.

Gretchen Johanson
Yeah, well keep up the good fight teachers and come on this way. We'll be happy to lead the way for you.

Kristi Oliva
Definitely. So do you want to leave the classroom and become an instructional designer like Gretchen, at IDOL courses Academy we help you build your professional portfolio, revise your resume, prepare for interviews and give you valuable feedback on everything you design. Sign up for IDOL courses Academy using my code classroom 100 and get $100 off enrollment. It's time to take control and make the career change that will change your life. It changed mine. See you next time. That's all for this episode, but you can find more at idolcourses.com or subscribe to the podcast. And if you are ready to leave the classroom, use my code classroom 100 And get $100 off enrollment to IDOL courses Academy.

Sign up for IDOL courses Academy using my code Classroom100 and get $100 off enrollment. It's time to take control and make the career change that will change your life. It changed mine. See you next time. That's all for this episode, but you can find more at idol courses.com or subscribe to the podcast. 

Send your stories or your questions to [email protected] or share them with me on Instagram  @leavingtheclassroom.