Instructional Designer Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Instructional Designer resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Instructional designers are responsible for creating learning experiences that help people develop new skills and knowledge. They’re usually hired by large organizations to design training programs that can span weeks or months.
If you’re interested in a career that combines creativity with education, you might want to become an instructional designer. But before you start looking for a job, you need a resume that will showcase your talents and experience. Here are some tips and an example resume to help you write yours.
How to Write an Instructional Designer Resume
Here’s how to write an instructional designer resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
When you’re writing bullet points, it can be tempting to simply list your responsibilities. But that’s not enough to make a strong impression. Instead, you should use your bullet points to demonstrate your value by highlighting your accomplishments, results, and contributions.
For example, rather than saying you “developed training materials,” you could say you “developed training materials for new customer service agents, resulting in a 15% decrease in customer complaints over six months.”
The second bullet point paints a clear picture of what you did and the results of your work. It also provides a quantifiable result (15% decrease in complaints).
Related: What Is an Instructional Designer? How to Become One
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are used by many companies to help manage the influx of resumes they receive for open positions. When you apply for a job, your resume is scanned by an ATS for certain keywords related to the role. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right terms, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
One way to make sure you have the right keywords on your resume is to look at similar job postings and take note of the terms and phrases that are used most frequently. You can then add them into your resume where they’re most relevant.
Here are some common instructional designer keywords to get you started:
- Instructional Design
- eLearning
- Storyboarding
- Captivate
- Animation
- Instructor-led Training
- Articulate Storyline
- Train the Trainer
- Learning Management Systems
- Adobe Captivate
- Moodle
- Training & Development
- User Experience (UX)
- Adobe Photoshop
- Instructor-led Training Design
- Adobe InDesign
- Learning Management
- Virtual Instructor-led Training
- Training Delivery
- Adult Education
- Creative Writing
- Scenarios
- User Interface Design
- Technical Training
- Curriculum Development
- Training Needs Analysis
- E-Learning Design
- Learning Management Systems Integration
- DMC
- Training Delivery Methods
Showcase Your Technical Skills
instructional designers use a variety of programs and technologies to create instructional materials. They may be familiar with authoring tools like Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or Camtasia, as well as learning management systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Canvas, and Moodle. Additionally, instructional designers should be knowledgeable of current web technologies and how they can be used in instruction.
Related: How Much Does an Instructional Designer Make?
Remember The Basics
As you’re writing your resume, you’ll want to keep a few basic guidelines in mind.
Create Easy-to Scan Sections
There are a few things you can do to make your resume easier to read and understand quickly. Aligning everything to the left, using a standard font type and size, and keeping bullets under 2 lines will help make your resume more skimmable. You should also try to leave some white space on the page to help the recruiter easily scan through your information.
Be Concise
A resume should typically be one page long, unless you have a lot of experience to include. If you are a recent graduate or have less than five to eight years of professional experience, a one-page resume is ideal. If you have more than 10 years of experience, you can make a two-page resume to elaborate on that experience and highlight all of your job skills and qualifications. When trimming down a resume, remove irrelevant information, filler words, and unnecessary details.
Check Your Work
Proofreading your resume is an important step in ensuring that it looks its best. There are a few key things to look for: spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical mistakes. It is also important to be aware of easily confused words, such as their/there/they’re and to/too/two. Spell checking your resume is a good start, but you should also have someone else proofread it for you to catch any mistakes that you may have missed.
Consider Including a Summary
A well-crafted resume summary statement can be a great way to introduce yourself to a potential employer and highlight the skills and experiences you have that would make you the perfect candidate for the job. By explaining who you are, what you do, and what your best skills are, you can help recruiters see how your qualifications would be a perfect fit for the role you’re hoping to land. When drafting your summary statement, be sure to focus on your most relevant skills and experiences, and try to keep it to just a couple of lines.
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