EP-89: Bonus Episode! How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market
Happy Thanksgiving learning nerds! I hope you enjoy this bonus episode.
It's no secret that the instructional design market is highly competitive. How exactly did we get here and how can you stand out? Let's give you a competitive edge!
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Transcript
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:33:23
Luke
Hello learning nerds and welcome on in to the nerdiest video you're going to see today. And on today's episode, I want to talk a little bit more about the state of a job market with instructional design and with learning and developments, because I keep on getting a similar question in my inbox and it goes something along these lines of, look, I'm thinking about transitioning over into instructional design, but I've done my homework and what I keep on hearing about is that the market is too saturated.
00:00:33:28 - 00:01:04:06
Luke
It's too competitive. What do you think? What should I do? So let me give you a clear and definitive answer of is the market too saturated? Yes and no. Yeah, exactly. That's what you're hoping for inside of this video. It's a little bit trickier to explain about, though. And I want to share with you all perspectives. So that way you have more of an understanding about what is exactly happening from all different sides of the story.
00:01:04:07 - 00:01:26:13
Luke
Now, I'm going to make an educated guess that one of the very first things that you did when thinking about trying to transition over from one field into another is that you probably tapped into your network and reached out to someone who's currently an instructional designer. And my best guess is that your conversation went along the lines about, tell me, how did you get to where you are today?
00:01:26:21 - 00:01:50:11
Luke
What's something that you wish you knew about before becoming an instructional designer? And do you have any tips for me about how I can do this and how I can become an instructional designer? And once again, my best guess what you are probably heard about is that this person told you that if they fell into the role by accident, they never plans on becoming an instructional designer.
00:01:50:11 - 00:02:14:16
Luke
They had no goals or dreams or aspirations about doing this someday. They never grew up saying, I want to become an instructional designer. Instead, they led an initiative at work. They started to host trainings and workshops. They put together different forms of documentations and materials and guides and thinking about new processes. And then all of a sudden, before they knew it, one thing happens to another and then, hey, they're an instructional designer.
00:02:14:26 - 00:02:41:10
Luke
And the thing is, this really isn't that uncommon of a story. It's actually so uncommon. But there's an entire book about this called The Accidental Instructional Designer by friend of the show, Cammy Bean. And the thing is, is that when I was first trying to become an instructional designer a decade ago. GROSS. Is that when talking with people, I heard these exact same things of like, oh, well, I didn't go to school to become an instructional designer.
00:02:41:10 - 00:03:02:07
Luke
It kind of just happened or I was in some type of related position and it was close enough and they just kind of gave me the job. I kept on hearing these stories, but I was thinking about it was like, So what do I what do I do? I'm intentionally trying to become an instructional designer, so what steps do I take?
00:03:02:16 - 00:03:23:06
Luke
And I was given a whole bunch of different pieces of somewhat helpful advice as far as trying to be able to do this. And one of the things, of course, that I was thinking about back in 2013 was that, oh, I should go back to school. So hence I go to Google and I look it up. And at the time there were two instructional design degrees that were offered.
00:03:23:12 - 00:03:47:21
Luke
One really wasn't that flexible, one really wasn't that affordable. So I was like, I, I guess I'm not going to go back to school. Instead, I need to find another kind of option. So since going back to school wasn't an option, I had to definitely get creative. Of course, fired up the old Google machines. And definitely I taught myself through a lot of blogs and articles and books, and that's kind of the way that I went about with all of these things.
00:03:47:28 - 00:04:11:13
Luke
Shout out, by the way, to Christy Tucker and Connie Malamed, because they have had their blogs up for quite some time and they still do. They're still active. They are still sharing amazing resources. If you have not checked out their types of blogs, highly recommend for you to be able to do so. But at the time I did not have all of these different forms of resources, like with what you currently have.
00:04:11:19 - 00:04:42:26
Luke
And that's what's really interesting. If you want to be able to do an activity with me for a second talking about instructional design degrees, take out your phone and Google Instructional Design degrees and count how many different advertisements are popping up before you actually hit the first organic search. They're talking about degrees. It's crazy. This did not exist back in 2013 and I think that's one point I'm really trying to be able to hit home with you is that so many things did not exist back then and then.
00:04:42:28 - 00:05:12:26
Luke
Now you do have them think about every type of way for you to learn about instructional design nowadays, from courses to trainings to programs to books and webinars and workshops and YouTube and podcasts and you name it, there are a thousand different ways for you to learn about instructional design, which is amazing. And really this is all in all, a sign of a times about thinking about this from a supply and demand perspective.
00:05:13:04 - 00:05:54:01
Luke
The job market has keeps on going up as far as are posting new types of instructional design related positions and ID positions. And it's really because of the fact we can certainly trace the origin back to 2020 because of the pandemic. During that time frame, everyone actually learned about what the heck instructional design was. And mainly this is because of the fact that we began to actually say different forms of terms like remote learning and remote working and then emergency learning how flex learning and eventually this transitional period into now having an instructional designer on the team became a normal part of the process.
00:05:54:01 - 00:06:14:29
Luke
And this meant that every organization was hiring for an instructional designer, and they still are. Right now, I have seen job postings from Apple and Google and Tesla and Twitter and Spotify and Amazon and of course, breaking into the sports world, which still I'm trying to wrap my head around this of knowing that the Denver Broncos had an instructional designer.
00:06:14:29 - 00:06:41:16
Luke
There's currently an instructional designer on the New York Jets. There is a designer on the Portland Trail Blazers. There is a UK football club, also has a designer. It's crazy and it keeps on growing. So this is a sign of the times that, yes, these jobs are going to keep on coming about. But now, since there are so many ways to learn about instructional design, well, obviously this has increased the level of competition.
00:06:41:20 - 00:07:19:27
Luke
So I think it's safe to say that now we are ushering in a new age of the intentional instructional designer for folks like yourself, for watching this video, you are easily going to become more educated than for many other people before who fell into this role by accident, and then they had to learn along the way. You're coming in with these different forms of prerequisites and knowledge that for many of us we learned literally on the job the idea of going to school to get a bachelor's and master's, a Ph.D. in instructional design, not as common.
00:07:20:05 - 00:07:40:17
Luke
And now, of course, I need to be able to say, are there going to be outliers? Absolutely. Positively. I had someone just last week email me, say that she just became an accidental instructional designer. She fell into this role and she's like, what do I do next? And I okay, so this is still a thing. People can still do this.
00:07:40:27 - 00:08:00:23
Luke
However, I think now for most folks, they are intentionally trying to be able to do this. And this is where I think there is a bunch of confusion is that for a lot of people, if you read stories and you talk to people and hear about how they got to where they are today, it was more of those different types of accidental ish paths.
00:08:01:00 - 00:08:22:17
Luke
But that's changed and it's changed, of course, rapidly. I mean, 2020 is not that long ago in the grand scheme of things. Instructional design has been around for a decade is upon decades. This isn't new by any means, in any way, shape or form, but figuring out how to transition over into this field. This is kind of a newer thing.
00:08:22:19 - 00:08:41:26
Luke
And what I keep on seeing on LinkedIn and Facebook and whatnot is that people will be asking about, Here are all my qualifications, here are my credentials. Am I ready to become a designer? I guess is one way of being able to say it. And in, you know, a couple of years ago, maybe maybe that would have been enough.
00:08:41:26 - 00:09:10:06
Luke
But now, now I don't think so. And now that's where this idea of the competition is saturation. Now, this is starting to make sense about everything because you're realizing you need to do more to stand out from the crowd and what maybe what have been plenty before. Well, now it's difference. And now you need to be able to really make yourself pop out compared to the other different forms of applicants.
00:09:10:06 - 00:09:32:04
Luke
So with all of that said, let me give you a hiring managers perspective. So that way, you know a little bit more about what we're kind of going through, because I have talked with many hiring managers over the last couple of years and trying to be able to help pair them with instructional design, aspiring instructional designers. And I've heard some of the same different forms of common themes.
00:09:32:12 - 00:09:55:03
Luke
So I want to be able to share that with you. And certainly what I've been hearing about does align with my own types of experiences. When I was hiring for a designer on my team about a year ago, and this is kind of how it went, is that once I posted the job, I talked with a whole bunch of people about it, and then I received the amount of applicants and how many people applied for the job.
00:09:55:11 - 00:10:17:08
Luke
And then it was essentially me and scrolling through 93 pages to be able to see who should be joining the team, who is really going to help us. We're trying to be able to solve our problem and to help with everything for the entire design process. And for many of the applicants, they had similar education, they had similar trainings.
00:10:17:17 - 00:10:41:14
Luke
But what really did stood out in me. This is one of the tips to be able to share with you that I was like, Oh, I want to learn more about this. I need to talk with this person. Was when people submitted their portfolios and I could actually see what they were working on. Now, of course, this is going to be something that is not trying to phrases correctly.
00:10:41:20 - 00:11:03:24
Luke
It's not required of you, I guess is the best way of saying it. But I would strongly recommend it because you want something that is going to showcase your abilities and what you could bring to the table, what you can bring to the team. In some cases, for some people they're trying to be able to see different forms of ideas come through that already exist on the team.
00:11:03:24 - 00:11:25:07
Luke
And they're going to say like, Oh, fantastic, you have scenario based learning and project based learning. And you worked on this type of course and this type of experience will then fantastic. Come on in. This is really going to be able to help us out with everything and then for some other different forms of instances, it's like, Oh, our team doesn't have that skillset or that or that.
00:11:25:07 - 00:11:43:02
Luke
And yeah, we want to be able to talk with this person more and see if this could really help to boost the team. We've always loved different forms of areas. And how would you do this, by the way, I beg of you, as you are making your portfolio, please do not just have screenshots and then send it over.
00:11:43:26 - 00:12:13:24
Luke
I don't know what this represents as a hiring manager, as I'm looking at screenshots, I'm like, well, it's pretty, it's it's there. And like, but other than that, this doesn't tell a story. I want to know so much more of the behind the scenes of what exactly was involved in this type of design. And I actually lay out for you in the latest blog post that I put out there that was called So You Want to Become an Instructional Designer?
00:12:14:00 - 00:12:32:16
Luke
I list every step for you when making your portfolio. If you haven't checked out that blog post, please go down to the show notes and read that. That's going to greatly help you with a number of different areas. But to try to be able to summarize it is that when you are describing the projects that you are working on, you were giving a summary of what is a project actually about.
00:12:32:21 - 00:12:53:00
Luke
There is an introduction. Was talking more about your role on the project. How did you actually contribute? What did you do? Who were the stakeholders? What was a problem? You were trying to be able to solve a training and with education, giving all of this information about this scenario. And then you can talk more about how you then actually thought about the learning experience.
00:12:53:00 - 00:13:15:04
Luke
How did you really design it? How did you fully build it? Outperforms a learning strategies that you use. What did you actually incorporate? And then talking about the results and the evaluation process, what were the findings? What would you do differently next time? And then trying to be able to include at that point the screenshots, the different forms of artifacts and any other different forms of supportive material.
00:13:15:11 - 00:13:37:08
Luke
Then sure included. But you need that story around it. Your portfolio is a storytelling element because you are sharing more about you and what you can bring to the team. And if you were starting from the ground up, by the way, you probably already have something as far as or putting together a portfolio piece and you probably just don't know it yet.
00:13:37:16 - 00:14:02:01
Luke
We've talked about that a lot on the podcast. I'll include some different types of links about how to essentially get projects to be able to come in. Most of the time, you've already has some form of a project and it's more about documentation, it's more about supporting everything. But if you were really starting from nothing and then now you're trying to be able to get your very first type of project, well, there are a few different ways of being able to do so.
00:14:02:01 - 00:14:30:15
Luke
And without going into so many details to make this video like 2 hours long, the best piece of advice I can give for you right now is to start sharing that you want to go down this instructional design journey with other people, whether is friends or family or peers or coworkers or colleagues or sharing about it on LinkedIn of just telling people that you want to start being able to design meaningful learning experiences and that you're looking to be able to collaborate with another person.
00:14:30:15 - 00:14:49:13
Luke
To be able to do so for the easiest wins is obviously going to be with volunteering. I certainly started out that way. You might doing that as well too. That could be the path for you to be able to take. If you want to go down the actual freelance road and getting paid and everything else, it is a whole different path for you to be able to go down.
00:14:49:13 - 00:15:18:03
Luke
So I want to do some glossing over, just like some general overview guidelines is that if you're looking to be able to work with folks to get a project and you're volunteering your time with things, you are going to be so surprised by how many people, especially nowadays in 2023, want to be able to have these different forms of courses and trainings and programs and other different forms of offerings and they just have no idea how to do it, where to start.
00:15:18:03 - 00:15:39:04
Luke
And hey, that's where you come in. And I've talked with people who have written books before and they want to be able to create a type of a follow up course to everything, or they have their own form of a coaching type of side hustle. And now that keeps on growing and now they want to be able to put together some type of a live offering to go with it.
00:15:39:04 - 00:16:00:15
Luke
And you'll be surprised by how many people really would love your help with things. Of course, do not get taken advantage of. Make sure that you are doing something that is a very small win, especially if you are volunteering it. This is going to be a much larger project and it's for an organization. And then, yeah, then let's think more about the freelance side of the house.
00:16:00:21 - 00:16:34:07
Luke
I'll include more links in the show notes for you if you're going down that path, because that's a whole different ballgame. Okay. So portfolio, how to be able to get some of the artifacts then from there is to really, really hammer home building out your network. And I know, but I've talked about this quite a bit on this channel and on the podcast is the importance of connections is the importance of your network and this entire idea of digging the well before you are thirsty, you want to be able to really build out this network before you start asking for favors and before you start going around.
00:16:34:13 - 00:16:58:27
Luke
We're trying to be able to have people to help you out with your entire job search. What is the best way of being able to do this? For me personally, it's LinkedIn 100%. Without a doubt. Almost all my efforts nowadays are on LinkedIn, and whenever I'm training people to be able to start building out essentially their own brand of or starting from scratch or trying to be able to really create that network, LinkedIn is going to be the way to go.
00:16:59:03 - 00:17:31:05
Luke
Almost everyone I can think of in an organization nowadays is on LinkedIn. It's kind of become like the professional Facebook in nature. Yeah, something like that is how I would describe it nowadays. So everyone has a LinkedIn on top of that. So which is going to be the hugest part for this is that as you keep on growing out the network, as you keep on connecting with people, whether it's going to be with virtual coffee chats or messaging or just commenting on their posts or sharing their materials or whatever it is, the more of it you can actually create those different forms of connections.
00:17:31:05 - 00:17:58:17
Luke
Those are the people who you want to be able to follow, because I promise you, when they have a job posting on their team and then they're going to share it as soon as it comes out or is telling them to, hey, spread the word with their network and sure enough, you're going to be a part of that network and therefore you have a much better chance of being able to connect with this person to learn more about the organization, the culture, what it's like working there.
00:17:58:22 - 00:18:17:16
Luke
Tell me more about the job. If you can get the inside scoop, that's greatly going to help you out for applying to different types of instructional design jobs, not to mention to maybe these connections become your references. Maybe they're going to be able to really give you that advantage in that edge compared to other different forms of applicants.
00:18:17:24 - 00:18:38:08
Luke
So it does not hurt to being able to do that. This actually greatly helped me when I was first applying for instructional design jobs and I was using the feature that was new at the time of Apply with LinkedIn, two very different jobs. And when I was applying with jobs, what I would say at the time was how many of my connections worked at those organizations?
00:18:38:08 - 00:18:54:27
Luke
And then I could follow up with those people to be able to say like, Hey, just wanted to let you know I applied for this job over here for this team. Could you tell me anything more about the department, about this team? It'd be really awesome if I can learn a little bit more about anything that you're willing to share.
00:18:54:29 - 00:19:16:23
Luke
Hey, speaking of LinkedIn, by the way, before I forgot to say this, that applicant number in the top right hand corner, when you go when you look at a job, that is not how many people apply. I don't know why this is how it's labeled as, but the truth is that that's how many people clicked on the job posting and went through and saw it.
00:19:16:23 - 00:19:36:17
Luke
Like, that's but not physically applying and going through all of the stages. So especially to when you see some jobs, like if there's a job at Amazon and all of a sudden there's an instructional design position that pops up and you see it and you look at it 1/2 and then like 5 minutes later there's a thousand applicants and you're like, Well, guess that's not for me.
00:19:36:17 - 00:19:59:17
Luke
And you can just like move on. Well, that's also why I wanted to make sure that I mentioned about that too, because it's super confusing and really annoying. So I just want to make sure that you're aware about that. And the final thing, folks, if I can just be real with you for a second here, even if you do all of those things I just mentioned, and even if you're doing everything incorrectly, you are upskilling like crazy.
00:19:59:17 - 00:20:25:03
Luke
You're taking every course you're reading every book you're going to, every seminar you're doing, every single thing right. And sometimes it still just takes a long time. And that's just the truth for some of them. You are going to apply to jobs and hear nothing back from. Sometimes you're going to be applying and then you had an interview or two and then same thing.
00:20:25:03 - 00:20:43:28
Luke
If you feel like you got ghosted me like I did, I do something wrong, did something happened and I experienced this quite a bit. If you know my story, you know that it took me a long time to finally become an instructional designer. And I went through all the same motions and all of the same feelings that you were currently going through right now.
00:20:43:28 - 00:21:03:29
Luke
And to put it bluntly, it sucks like it applying to job after job, better job and not seeing results. It's pretty brutal. It's not a fun time. But the thing that I learned about from so many different failures is that from sometimes you just don't know the full story and it's kind of tricky to be able to really put together.
00:21:04:10 - 00:21:25:20
Luke
There was one moment that I still perfectly, you know, is clear inside of my head when I applied for a job and I was for in-person and I went in, it was awesome. Everything was great. I had multiple rounds of interviews and it was just like, Oh, this is like I got it. Like, This is perfect. We're all on the same page.
00:21:25:20 - 00:21:56:27
Luke
Life is good. Can't wait to start working at this place. And then nothing. Nada. Like what? What did I do wrong? Like, what did I say? Like what? Of course, I'm overanalyzing everything. I was like, I must have made someone mad. Like, what did I do? And then come to find out about four months. Five months later, I get an email and the email was just like, Look, we're so sorry, but you didn't get this message.
00:21:56:27 - 00:22:26:02
Luke
And I just noticed and now I'm following up with you, like, okay, and like, what? What happened? And it turns out one of the significant people who are involved in the hiring process got into a car accident. It was crazy. It was a serious car accident. And of course, fatigue was this like we're done like we got to we need to focus on our person, make sure that they're doing okay, and then maybe we'll get back to this and we'll kind of figure it out and that email never reached me.
00:22:26:08 - 00:22:46:02
Luke
And this person, very kind person that this organization reached out to me months later, just basically saying, you should have received this email. So sorry it got lost. It wasn't sent. We don't know what happened, but we just wanted to fill you in and let you know. And it was really this is a story that I think about her just saying, you don't always know what's what's happening.
00:22:46:02 - 00:23:12:15
Luke
Things do happen involved with the hiring process. And I while I would like to think that normally these extremes don't happen, there are moments of time where you think it's going grand and smooth and awesome and then it doesn't pan out. And of course, that is the real world. Once again, I completely sympathize with you. It is super brutal, not fun in any way, shape or form, but it is a part of this process.
00:23:12:15 - 00:23:32:02
Luke
It's a difficult process to be able to transition from one job to another no matter what field or what industry you are going to. But that is a reality of everything with this entire process altogether. So let me leave you with one piece of advice that I think is going to help you out and help me out my job search process and really throw everything with my life.
00:23:32:13 - 00:23:54:17
Luke
And that is to identify with your strengths and to believe in your hard work because people let you down, organizations will let you down. Leaders will let you down. But you your hard work that will never let you down. You have earned that. And no one can take that away from you and all things will come in due time.
00:23:54:28 - 00:24:21:09
Luke
Keep on working hard. Promise you the reward is going to be worth it. Just keep on sticking to it. And I know you're going to be able to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be. Well, hey, folks, I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you did subscribe to the YouTube channel and comment down below about what you are currently going through and leave your best tips to help out others throughout this entire job search process.
00:24:21:18 - 00:24:36:05
Luke
If you have any questions for me, as always, you can connect with me over on LinkedIn and you can always show me over an email. luke@ drluke Hobson.com but hey folks, that is all I have for you today. Stay nerdy out there. Talk to you next time.
