Shirron Jeffries, MBA, MSI

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Several of you have mentioned that I create an E-portfolio. What should be in it? Is there a standard way to do it?

My issue with it is that I don’t have any graduate work to show. I received my degree five years ago (2005). I have not done any work in the field at all. I have six years of teaching (trade school, college, and public school) under my belt. I’m stuck on where to start. What should I include since I don’t have anything? Should I focus on building one at this point?

Antoinette Hando - Ed.D. Student (ABD) Instructional Design and Technologyyou’ll want to first decide what type of instructional design you want to do. For me, the main distinctions are corporate vs. education. Then create examples of what you can do for the field you’ve chosen.

If you have taught then you have lesson plans that can be made into a portfolio. Maybe take the lesson plans and look at it from the point of view of an instructional designer. What would you add to make them better for online or blended learning? Could you do a video sample of you teaching a 10 minute introduction to a topic? You could take one of your powerpoints and create a captivate lesson. This would give you a chance to update your lessons and show how you react as an instructional designer.

Heather Willis - Sales Curriculum Developer at VMware

You can build training on anything. It is not necessarily the subject matter - it is more about the delivery. You can provide training on how to back a cake or even how to tie your shoe. I recommend using the free trial of Storyline, Articulate Studio or Captivate to put together a couple short lessons to provide on your portfolio and keep working on it. Good luck!

You know, telling new instructional designers that they should work for free to break into the field is a bit self-defeating for the industry as a whole. Where does this end? It puts a constant downward pressure on the earning potential of instructional designers, first by adding the cost of several months of working for no pay onto the cost of any formal education the ID might have pursued to launch his or her career in the first place, and second, by forcing established IDs to price-compete with all this free labor that constantly enters the field.

Siamak Taslimi - Founder of TheEducators.com

Hi Shirron, check this site http://www.theeducators.co/ and if you needed more assistance contact me.

Greetings Shirron -Companies hire people for 2 basic reasons: - 1. To make money. 2. To save money. An individual has only 2 ways to make money: - 1. Sell a product. 2. Sell a service. Most people sell services.

How much money can you make or save a company? Depending on the industry, companies generally look for a minimum return on investment (ROI) of about 5 x 1. If you want a salary of $80,000 then show them how, if they hire you, they will make about $400,000. Then it is a “no brainer” for a decision maker to say join my team.

Now with your accredited Master degrees you have invested in yourself about 30,000 hours to sell services. What have you done to earn these degrees that will validate your creativity - not knowledge? Employers look for creativity not knowledge. Creativity indicates problem solving attributes not someone who only has the knowledge to put a nut on a bolt.

The realities are that your investments in yourself cost you money and you also needed to survive especially if you have family needs let alone your one needs.

Do you have a web site to show case your creativity? Do you have your own business cards to help you focus your passion and abilities? Do you have enough experience to do consultant work?

Now you reached out to this form and I hope others as well to highlight some of your creativity so here is what I suggest you can do ASAP to get noticed and not only a job but more importantly a career for your passion.

1. Target a minimum of 100 specific individuals, companies and charities that you want or can go after to introduce your skills.
2. Do some design work for charity but make sure you get to know who is on the board of directors and then introduce yourself to these people and then network. A lot of these BOD people are from companies that you may want to work for or know people in these companies.
3. Use your school network - Professors especially. They get requests all the time for consultant work or asked to recommend bright students.
4. Send me your resume with testimonials and examples
5. Register with associations such as Maven, head hunters, government

I am sure that you have done a lot already but you must not give up. It will come despite the pressures that you may be feeling now.

I found myself in that situation after I finished my degree a couple years ago. I changed careers from retail management (where I was conducting training for my staff as well as the region) to a full-time ID position. 3 things helped me:

1. Start small: Apply for and accept contract work. You may just be doing storyboards, or just routine development, but it gets your name out there and a chance to work with people. The very rare test drive of a company to see if you like the way they work and vice versa. It’s not uncommon to be offered a permanent position if they have the need and resources.

2. Build your portfolio: I started by using better projects from my masters degree and added to them from industry work. A lot of places will grant you permission to include your work in a personal portfolio, usually as long as you scrub client logos/names and the company logo/name if it appears anywhere. LinkedIn now has a portfolio feature, or you can build an interactive PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro to send to potential employers.

3. Learn software: As someone earlier pointed out, the academy downplays the role of software and focuses on theory and methods. They are academics and researchers - of course they do. The reality is, you need to be able to use these tools as a means to apply the theory to produce something that looks good, works correctly, and bridges the performance gap (which is what you are really selling - a solution). Download 30 day trials using your school e-mail address and play around with the tool, maybe even build a hypothetical course (pick something you already know or can easily research). You’re learning the software AND building your portfolio. Then, use a personal e-mail to get another free 30 days. After 2 months, you should know it well enough to feel comfortable listing it on a resume and talking about it’s pros and cons in an interview.