INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Instructional Designer positions are at a 13% growth rate, which is faster than average. With that said, there are currently 199,400 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 25,500 to 224,900 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Instructional Designer jobs was $77,200 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $40,750, and the highest 10% more than $146,430.
Our conclusion? The Instructional Designer job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Instructional Designer sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Instructional Designer resume experience section
Instructional Designer Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Instructional Designer resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Lead developer, content designer and product manager for a venture backed LMS that generated $6M in revenue by 3rd year of launch.
- Designed and wrote content in Authorware for over 15 online federal regulation training programs (~300 courses) including the Privacy Act, Truth in Lending and Bank Secrecy Act.
- Data warehouse developer for an analytics dashboard leveraged by 83k client users to report on adherence of federal training programs.
- Introduced visual storyboard techniques
- Researched and implemented latest trends of learning
- Mobile based learning and responsive content management
- Simplified Complex Business Requirements
- Creation of Storyboard and getting storyboards converted into CBTs with Animators and Voice over artists help
- Delivered engaging content for CBTs for Panduit, Integrra, Rolls Royce Leeds University, IKEA etc
- End-to-end project management of various training projects for New Hire curriculums
- Learning production from scoping to delivery including content design
- Consulted with and solicited input from key partners for learning program refinement and new training development
- Coached and mentored instructional design colleagues
- Supported Delivery teams with learning content amendments
- Train and lead a team of four instructional designers to create multimedia assets for K-12 courses that meet client needs, company standards, WCAG 2.0 AA standards, and aggressive deadlines
- Design interactive multimedia learning assets including animations, avatar videos, interactive videos, and exploratory, guided practice, and assessment activities for variety of content areas including pre-calculus, health, phonics, etc.
- Collaborate with SMEs to meet their course needs and objectives
- Taught 13,000+ students face to face (up to 200 students per class)
- Taught 6,000+ hours on GMAT subjects
- Rated 4.7 out of 5.0 in student satisfaction
- Standardized student evaluation system for pre- and post- class assessment
- Conducted new teacher training and standardized teaching material
- Design online learning activities for Professional Development courses
- Create wireframes and prototypes for course activities and course pages
- Explore new training methodologies and technologies for course design
- Collaborate with academic team, video team and UX team for course production
- Initiated and developed new after school English Language Learner (ELL) language club to support 35 ELL students who test out of services during the school day but need additional academic language help.
- Developed instructional plan
- Utilized learner analysis and formative evaluation
- Developed learning materials including learner guides, review aides, and activity guides
- Adapted third grade curriculum to meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELL) and special needs students, ultimately assisting the 12 lowest math students to surpass their end-of-year goal
- Consulted with clients to determine training needs.
- Designed and developed eLearning applications for Rogers, Bell, AT&T.
- Examined workflows and created automated processes saving RIM hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Led 3 instructional design projects aiming at helping NYU faculty enhance course engagement with technology assistances
- Facilitated technology-training sections to assist 12 faculty members in integrating technologies and the course contents
- Developed 3 courses with NYU faculty by integrating campus instructional resources and the learning materials
- Evaluated 12 instructional designs of NYU faculty members by creating data visualization graphs
- Consulted with clients to determine training needs.
- Designed and developed eLearning applications for Rogers, Bell, AT&T.
- Examined workflows and created automated processes saving RIM hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Develop, design, implement, and facilitate engaging clinical curricula with SCORM functionality to avoid regulatory fines.
- Manage curriculum development and the Learning Management System for 3,000 staff members.
- Propose technical guidance to executives for efficient usage of the Learning Management System.
PRO TIP
In writing your Instructional Designer resume, you will no doubt want to list your previous duties - as you should. But steer clear of just listing your duties, instead of your achievements. Make your resume stand out by communicating what you have done, and not merely what the job needed you to do.
Action Verbs for your Instructional Designer Resume
Recommended reads:
Instructional Designer Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Instructional Designer resume
- Captivate
- Articulate
- Camtasia
- SumTotal
- Success Factors
- Axonify
- Communication
- Active listening
- Conflict resulotion
- Stakeholder management
- Empathy
- Openmindedness
PRO TIP
Don’t feel obliged to spend a separate section for your soft skills - you can weave them throughout your job experience or career summary. But, don’t just write empty words - back them with examples.
Instructional Designer Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Instructional Designer Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Instructional Designer resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Instructional Designer Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Instructional Designer resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Instructional Designer resume
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Instructional Designer Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Instructional Designer Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Instructional Designer resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Instructional Designer resume:
Instructional Designer Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Instructional Designer resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Instructional Designer Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
