In an unfortunate era where Arts programs in schools are losing funding and shutting down rapidly, creating opportunities and advocating became my most valuable skill set as a public school teacher. One of the best pieces of advice ever given to me as an Arts teacher was, “You have to create a program that is too visible and concrete for them to silently take away.” This meant creating community outreach...

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...

Are you a perfectionist?

Are you struggling to build your first portfolio?

Do you feel like you're spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere?

STOP! Right where you are. Save yourself wasted time and effort by learning from my mistakes.

Here are some revelations I had while working on my portfolio:

Set realistic expectations for what your portfolio should look like based on your current abilities and experience as an instructional designer. If you are new to the field, aim to demonstrate your proficiency and understanding, instead of skill and expertise.

While the portfolios of experts and leading industry practitioners are great sources of inspiration, your portfolio will likely not look like theirs. As a novice, you do not have the experience to create a portfolio equivalent to the portfolios that took others years and sometimes a decade-plus to work up to.

Here are some examples of what your first portfolio website might look like:

Christine Prince

Bonnie Lou Davis

...

See this post by Roshon Goode: "Degrees Don't Get You an IDOL Job, Experience Does."  To prove you have the experience, you need a portfolio. And to create a portfolio, you have to be working as an ID.

Or do you?

Building a portfolio is something I never had to think about in my 15 years as a classroom teacher. It isn't easy to know where to start! But the IDOL courses Academy takes you through each step of the process. When building a portfolio, most people use their past experience and past projects. But since I was coming from K-12 and wanted to move into corporate, none of my previous work samples would do.

Here are my suggestions and experience with building real portfolio pieces without having an ID job.

1. Reach out

Once I began my journey to becoming an ID, I told my...

 Many aspiring instructional designers know and understand the concept of instructional design, but aren't quite sure of the software tools needed to achieve the results. There are several software tools I use on the job daily as an ID. In this blog, I will talk about the ones I feel every instructional designer should learn based on my personal experiences.

1. Articulate 360 is a one-stop collaboration tool for you to design, collaborate, and review eLearning courses. It includes two of the most popular course creation apps, Storyline and Rise 360. It also consists of the Review 360 app, which allows you to collaborate with others on projects. I particularly use Review 360 daily as a way for...

• I don’t know how to do any of this.
• I am too embarrassed to show my work to people.
• I’m not good enough.

Being new sucks.

You are just beginning to learn the rules that everyone else appears to have mastered. The list of things you don’t know seems never-ending. You are taking in as much information as you can, yet your output is subpar. Plus, you don’t get the inside jokes and are not even sure if you fit in.

Being new can be so uncomfortable, embarrassing, and sometimes demoralizing...except if you’re a toddler.

Then being new is liberating!

You get to be bad, really bad, at things, and still be proud of your efforts.

You get to experiment without worrying whether you look presentable doing it.

You get to fail miserably and repeatedly without fear of judgment.

Even when you literally fall on your face, you give yourself the grace to make mistakes and...

Anyone who has been in an active job search recently knows how frustrating it can be. As job seekers, we are playing a very serious game, against thousands of other seekers, and we don’t really know the rules the companies are playing by. We look for – we need – ways to ensure that every resume we send reaches the audience and makes an impact.

The Gatekeeper

Long ago, at the beginning of my career, the job search process was straightforward: you found a job listing in a newspaper classified ads, typed a resume to give your qualifications and appeal to the hiring manager, sent it to the address in the ad, and waited.

The significant shift came with the rise of internet job sites . These sites made it so easy to apply for jobs that companies were overwhelmed with the response. The same technology that caused the overwhelm was harnessed to filter applications so that only the most relevant or most qualified applications reached the humans.

This technology...

You are missing out!

There is a talent pool ripe for the picking you are overlooking and dismissing too quickly.  These talented people are already equipped with the skill-set needed to be successful as an Instructional Designer (ID).

Who are they? They are educators looking to join the corporate world using the experience and knowledge they already possess.

As a former public school teacher, it was difficult for me to break into the corporate world even though I already had the ID skills.

I encountered many companies that seem to lack an understanding of how an educator’s experience, education, and skill-set can easily transfer into the corporate ID world. Therefore, passing on very qualified candidates.

I’ve found flaws in your reasons for rejection. I challenge you to take a look at your reasons to say no and indulge me with my reasons to say yes.

Your Reasons for Rejection:

1.       “You don’t...

How did I do this?

Many instructional design hiring managers state one of the first things they look for when it comes to the hiring process is the candidate’s portfolio of work samples. In this blog, I will discuss my 45-day journey to completing my instructional design portfolio and landing a job with the help of IDOL courses Academy. 

What is an...