Hi! I’m Learning Experience Design, but you can call me LxD for short. A lot of people ask me where I’m from because I’m kind of the new kid on the block. Some people even have the nerve to ask if I’m just a teacher dressed in sheep’s clothing. To which I say: yes! I’m a teacher, a graphic designer, an information architect, a data analyst, an interface ninja, and more! That’s just the upper fold of my Tinder profile.

But anyway, I get it. There are so many acronyms floating around LinkedIn nowadays that it’s starting to look a lot like alphabet soup. So, I guess the best way to tell you about who I am - or in other words, “what LxD is” - is to tell you the story of how my parents met.

My mom (ID) grew up in a family of proud third-generation instructional designers. All were summa cum laude graduates of the IDOL courses Academy. My mom was raised on a steady diet of educational pedagogy, neuroscience, and...

 Have you ever gone through a long interview process, then been turned down for the job?

I have. And honestly, it felt like a bad breakup.

Job searching sucks. But with the right mindset and tools, you can find yourself in a winning relationship with the perfect match for you!

I think looking for a job is a lot like dating life. 

Each job is like a relationship. Depending on the length of the relationship, you can feel a variety of emotions when it is over. The end of a long, committed relationship may leave you feeling devastated like you don’t know what your next steps will be. Leaving a toxic relationship can make you feel relieved, yet undeserving of anything better. 

Then you are thrown back into the dating pool (the job search) to seek out something new and hopefully better. 

I have found that the rules of dating apply to the interview process.

1. Be Confident

If you are unsure of yourself, it will translate in the interview and...

Are you getting ghosted after interviews?

Are you relying on friends & family members for feedback on your portfolio?

Do you wish you had a community to guide & support you during the job search process?

You can go from being ghosted to becoming one of your future company’s best hires with IDOL courses Academy. I did!

Before joining IDOL courses Academy, I was a literacy teacher/teacher trainer & coach, who was spinning her wheels on how to officially break into the instructional design industry. 

I dove in taking courses, reading books & blogs, listening to podcasts, and watching YouTube videos. In 2019, I even attended the ATD conference, networked, and attended the career center, where I managed to land two interviews.

One of the interviews seemed promising. I liked the team, and I had a feeling that they liked me, too. Then, they popped the big question: “Do you have a portfolio?” 

I did not. I only had a couple of samples I had created...

“I only got the job because I got lucky.”

“Will they find out I don’t know what I am doing?”

Do any of these sound familiar? You may be dealing with imposterism. And you are in good company.

If you aren’t sure, take this Imposterism self-assessment created by Pauline Rose Clance.

Imposterism. Imposter Syndrome. Imposter Phenomenon. Imposter Experience. 

These terms describe how high-achieving people fail to recognize their success and/or accomplishments and have persistent self-doubt and fear of being exposed as a fraud. They struggle with attributing their performance to their competence and often attribute success to luck or other outside factors.

No matter what you call it, imposterism is real and present in the business world. It is not a disease or an abnormality, but can have a harmful impact on job performance and satisfaction, and eventually cause burnout.

Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of...