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AIs can generate words but they can't evaluate the truth of their statements. AIs can generate images and videos, but they can't evaluate the truth of what they generate. Sure, they can be asked to fact-check themselves. If you get an agent involved to do that automatically, you don't even have to ask them. But they can't tell a truth from a lie. AIs don't have the capacity to understand the difference. Even if they could, they aren't often being used to fact-check or generat

AIs are filtering through resumes before they ever get in front of a real set of eyes. How do you write your resume so that it won't get rejected by either? Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) pattern-match. Content that appears in the job description should also appear on your resume. This means skills, software names, and years of experience. Do the pattern-matching yourself first to make sure they are as alike as possible. But try to write it less like a list of skills and so

Learners won't learn things if they don't think they can do it. Your job is to believe that they can. If you are in the learning industry, and you can't bring yourself to believe your learners can absorb what you're teaching them, you're in the wrong job. I'm serious. It's not fluffy wishful thinking. If no one thinks your learners can do what you're asking of them, why would they even try? Why would they put forth the effort? Why wouldn't they do something else that they are

Word choice and vocabulary level should reflect the average schooling of your learners. Yes, many people who didn't graduate from high school are brilliant, and many people with college degrees are not. But if you pitch your vocabulary too high, you're just making it harder for your learners to actually use the thing you're trying to teach them because now they either have to stop every five minutes and look up a new word, forgetting everything else they just read, or they sk

Train how you work, work how you train Here's a test for any training you create: If a learner finished your course, then started the job the next morning, would they recognize the work from what they experienced during your training? How do you know they can actually do the job if the training has nothing to do with their tasks or work environment? Scenario-based learning fixes this by putting learners in realistic situations and asking them to make the same decisions they'l

When you give your learners an assessment, you really want to give them a fair chance to show what they know and can do. This is coming from someone who is absurdly good at passing tests: if a learner can pass by skipping the obviously-wrong option and picking the longest one, your assessment is measuring their test-taking skills. If the goal is behavior on the job, the assessment should look like the job. Testing for testing’s sake is also not helpful for anyone. Make sure t

What is a Project Manager? If your L&D department is large enough, you might have a project manager. Their job is to keep the project on track, on time, and in budget. They remove blockers (things that get in the way of your work being completed) and manage schedules. They also communicate with stakeholders (anyone with a say in the project, and anyone the project will have an impact on). A blocker is anything that is stopping your work from moving forward. If you are waiting

The best advice I can give is to start where you are. A lot of instructional designers transition in from other roles, and that's great! There's a lot of overlap in teaching (objectives, lesson plans), technical writing (facilitator guides, job aids), and other roles. But you don't need to try to get your experience to fit an ID job description if you can get more experience right where you are. First, the existing experience: Study job descriptions and write your resume to r

Part 2: How to find Instructional Design jobs It actually goes by a bunch of names because the job skills overlap so much. There is a difference between design and development (overly-simplistic example: design is creating lesson plans and storyboards using adult learning theory, while development is creating facilitator guides, eLearning modules, and job aids using software). However, most of the job descriptions I've read treat the two as interchangeable (even though they'r

Ageism is dumb and it hurts companies. What it's said to mean is "this person has more experience than the role requires and will therefore be bored and leave quickly." What it usually means, is: "this person is older than we imagined for this role and we don't know what to do about that" Let's also dismantle the "they'll be bored and leave" logic real quick: Younger employees leave all the time too. A lot of older candidates applying for "lower" roles have genuinely decided

Instructional Design (ID) is about creating learning experiences. Big experiences like eLearning courses, training programs, and onboarding, and small experiences like microlearning and job aids. It combines education, psychology, and content creation, and is mostly found in corporate L&D (learning & development) departments, higher education, nonprofits, government, and edtech companies. What you need to make: You need a portfolio. Hiring managers want to see samples. If you

You’re not “bad at presentations,” you’re someone who hasn’t practiced presentations enough yet. It's a skill that takes learning and practice to improve, just like any other. Keeping that line clear makes it way easier to improve without spiraling. When people attach a skill to their identity, progress and confidence slow down. “I'm bad at this” sounds permanent. It shuts the door before you’ve really started. But “I haven’t learned this yet”, and "I still need more practice

The fastest way to know if you understand something is to try to teach it to someone else. You’ll quickly discover what you actually know—and where the gaps are—simply by explaining a process out loud. Small businesses can use this practice to teach employees new skills and make the learning stick. I use a “show me how to do it, watch me do it, trust me to do it myself” approach, where “teach it back to me” occurs in step two. First, show me how to do it. This is where the le

If someone is struggling with a task, consider that it’s not a “people problem”, it might be a "process problem". Unclear processes, poor tools, or lack of organization are often the real issue. For example, if your small business employee keeps making mistakes when entering orders, it’s easy to assume they’re careless. But take a closer look: Are the instructions clear? Is the system intuitive? Are they switching between multiple screens or tools to complete one task? Are th

I'm usually asked for my portfolio during interviews and phone screens. I have the link right at the top of my resume. I built a website with Wix, but you don't have to do that, you really just need one well-designed page to put examples of your work and comments about them (how you made each, what program you used, and how you can bring that skill to the company you're applying to). Canva video editing is free. You can screen record your work on your computer, clean it up in

Start with what employees already know A lot of training fails because it starts too far away from anything the learner recognizes. Scaffolding works because it takes something familiar and builds outward from it. You’re not asking someone to understand a completely new concept from scratch, you’re just asking them to stretch what they already know a little further. In small businesses especially, people are never starting from zero. They’ve done *something* before. They have

Let’s talk about scaffolding in Learning and Development. The purpose of scaffolding is to learn things by building off of what you already know. If you know that your small business’ team already understands the basics of customer service like greeting customers warmly and responding politely, you don’t need to start training from scratch. You can build on that foundation by slowly introducing more advanced skills, such as handling difficult conversations, reading customer c

When you're trying to make a habit stick, or get a task done, rather than trying to make it easy to do something, consider trying to make it hard not to. This is especially useful for small businesses that can't afford for mistakes to slip through the cracks. Easy example: You need to mail a letter. Option 1: Put it by the door. Result: You walk right by it in the morning and it's there staring at you when you get back in the afternoon. Option 2: Put the letter on top of your